Correlations between biochemical indicators determined in the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus and morphological indicators, functional state of the central nervous system and neurological deficit in rats

Annotation. Today, the development and clinical implementation of drugs capable of preventing and/or inhibiting the apoptosis phenomenon is considered the main direction of cytoprotection in cerebral ischemia. Among the latter, the use of citicoline attracts attention. The purpose – to establish and analyze correlations between biochemical parameters determined in the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus of rats, and morphological manifestations of neuroapoptosis and parameters of CNS functioning in animals with experimental IR (ischemia-reperfusion) of a brain. The study was carried out on 75 four-month-old male Wistar rats weighing 160-190 g. In 65 animals, the experimental model of IR was performed by placing ligatures on the internal carotid arteries on both sides under propofol anesthesia. After cerebral IR modelling, 0,9% NaCl in a dose of 2 ml/kg was injected into the femoral vein of 40 rats. A group of animals (25 rats) immediately after the start of brain reperfusion was intravenously injected with citicoline (at a dose of 250 mg/kg). The control group of animals included sham-operated rats (10 animals). Assessment of neurological deficit in rats was carried out according to the stroke-index scale of C.P. McGrow, the functional state of the central nervous system - by the "open field" method, and morphometric and biochemical indicators were studied on the 7th and 14th day after IR. Statistical processing of the research results was carried out using the computer program Statistica 7.0 (StatSoft Inc. production, USA). The methods of non-parametric statistics were used (in particular, the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney U-test, Spearman's non-parametric correlation rank analysis). Reliable correlations are observed between the functional indicators of the central nervous system in rats (according to the results of the "open field" test) and biochemical indicators (such as the content of lactate, glucose, MDA, SDH, SOD and NO-synthase in the tissue of the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus), which indicate a change in the motor activity of rats with enzymatic and metabolic imbalance in the brain tissue of the specified areas. In addition, there are multiple linear relationships between biochemical and morphological indicators determined in the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus, which indicates a close functional interaction of the specified brain departments with each other (observed in all groups of rats). With subtotal IR of the brain in rats, there are specific direct correlations between the protein content in brain tissue and morphological indicators, as well as neurological deficit, which are recorded in the subacute period of ischemia (the 7th day) both in the somatosensory cortex and in the hippocampus. Specific inverse correlations also occur between MDA activity in the somatosensory cortex (the 14th day after ischemia) and morphological indicators in the hippocampus. The use of citicoline as a neuroprotector immediately after IR in rats did not cause the appearance of new highly specific correlational dependencies or the disappearance of existing ones.