SIGNIFICANCE OF FLUID FLOW FOR MORPHOLOGY OF ACUTE HYPOXIC‐ISCHAEMIC BRAIN CELL INJURY

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Abstract
The presence or absence of hypoxic fluid flow during ischemia may determine the structural character of the ischemic nerve cell injury. It is hypothesized that if a flow of fluid irrigates the injured neurons, there well be major shifts of ions and water, with consequent volumetric changes in the tissue and the dark type of neuronal injury will result; otherwise, the structural changes are less striking and are designated as the ''pale'' type. Rats were subjected to a global cerebral insult by filling the vasculature with a plasma substitute, which was either left stagnant or was flowing, and was either oxygenated (hypoxic flow) or nitrogenated (anoxic flow). Light microscopy and EM of the brain following 10-60 mim of hypoxic or anoxic ischemia disclosed that under all 3 circumstances the predominant nerve cell injury was of the pale type. Some additional factors present in whole blood (but not in the plasma substitute) are needed during or after the insult to induce in quantity the dark type of ischemic nerve cell injury.
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