Single-cell resolution mapping of neuronal damage in acute focal cerebral ischemia using thallium autometallography.

Neuronal damage shortly after onset or after brief episodes of cerebral ischemia has remained difficult to assess with clinical and preclinical imaging techniques as well as with microscopical methods. We here show, in rodent models of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), that neuronal damage in acute focal cerebral ischemia can be mapped with single-cell resolution using thallium autometallography (TlAMG), a histochemical technique for the detection of the K(+)-probe thallium (Tl(+)) in the brain. We intravenously injected rats and mice with thallium diethyldithiocarbamate (TlDDC), a lipophilic chelate complex that releases Tl(+) after crossing the blood-brain barrier.

The ATP-regulated K+-channel inhibitor HMR-1372 affects synaptic plasticity in hippocampal slices.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus are widely studied models of learning and memory processes. The role of ATP-regulated K+ channels (K(ATP)+ channels), which are abundant in the brain, has not yet been studied in long-term potentiation or long-term depression. We investigated whether K(ATP)+ channel inhibition by the highly selective K(ATP)+-channel blocker 1-[[5-[2-(5-tert-butyl-o-anisamido)ethyl]-2-methoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-3-methylthiourea (HMR-1372), a novel putative class III antiarrhythmic, affects long-term potentiation or the long-term depression induced by 3,5-dihydroxyphenylglycine (30 microM) in submerged rat hippocampal slices.