Kinetics of blood-brain barrier dysfunction to albumin around small cerebral stab wounds

A small stab wound was made in the frontal lobe of the rat brain in order to study the amount of albumin extravasated at different times after the injury. Evans blue-labeled bovine albumin was injected at various times after the injury. The animal was perfused with buffered saline at predetermined times and the contents of exogenous bovine albumin and of endogeneous rat albumin in the brain were assayed by rocket immunoelectrophoresis.
There was an immense extravasation of bovine albumin at the time of injury and during the first 10 min post-operatively, but a very slight extravasation during the following three post-operative hours. At the 6th postoperative hour there was an increase in the extravasation of albumin, followed by a subsequent decrease during the 16th and 24th post-operative hours.
The amount of endogenous rat albumin present in the injured area of the brain did not change from 10 min to 3 h after injury. At the 6th post-operative hour there was an increase in the amount of extravasated rat albumin, reflecting the increased extravasation of macromolecules during the 6th hour after injury.
The results obtained indicate that most of the albumin present in the brain during the first post-operative day is extravasated through the immediate hemorrhage at the time of injury. Thus, only a small portion of the extravasation of albumin around cerebral stab wounds can be prevented by post-operative pharmacological treatment.