Effect of air embolism on permeability of cerebral blood vessels

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Abstract
The healthy cerebral blood vessels of the cat and rabbit are not permeable to radioactive iodinated bovine albumin and trypan blue. Air embolism renders the cerebral blood vessels of the cat permeable to albumin molecules. This increased permeability is confined to the areas supplied by branches of the left carotid artery, through which the air was injected. The radioactivity of the brain tissue after embolization is of a comparatively short duration. It reaches a maximum in the first hour, declines quickly in the next 4 hours, and disappears almost completely at the end of 24 hours. The duration of the effect of air embolism on cerebrovascular permeability is very transient. In cats, no radioactivity was seen in cerebral autoradiographs when labeled albumin was injected 2 hours after embolization. In rabbits, only a faint blue color was observed in the brain when trypan blue was injected 1 1/2 hours after embolization. There is a species difference in the response of cerebral blood vessels to a noxious agent. In addition, in the same species, a given noxious agent can increase the permeability to one test substance but not to the other.