How to study the degree of excitotoxicity in rat models of MCAO stroke?
Thank in advance.
Cerebral ischemic stroke involves nerve cell death that is characterized by serial pathophysiological events, such as energy failure, excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, and apoptosis. Among these the best way to study the excitotoxicity is to check the glutamte level. the major cause of excitotoxicity in cerebral ischemia is the release of glutamate by depolarization of the cell membrane. Further you can check the other downstream pathway such as activation of IP3 pathway, NMDA and AMPA pathway and ultimately the release of calcium.
Hi Karthivaran
That's right. You can check the following:
1. Levels of neurotransmitter glutamate on the injured vs ipsilateral control side by microdialysis/HPLC. Figure 9 in my previous article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22427928
2. Western Blotting of death enzymes/markers - caspases, BaX, BCl2, ROS markers etc.
3. Tissue staining: Nissl.
Best wishes,
Chandana
It is possible to measure the level of autoantibodies to NMDA Rc of glutamate, but only 2-3 days after experiment.
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