(Stroke. 1996;27:514-519.)
© 1996 American Heart Association, Inc.
Articles |
From the Section on Analytical Biochemistry, Laboratory of Clinical Science, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md.
Correspondence to Sanford P. Markey, PhD, Section on Analytical Biochemistry, Laboratory of Clinical Science, National Institute of Mental Health, Bldg 10, Room 3D40, 10 Center Dr MSC 1262, Bethesda, MD 20892-1262. E-mail s_markey@codon.nih.gov.
| Abstract |
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Methods After transient (10 minutes) ischemia followed by controlled periods (0 to 96 hours) of reperfusion and recovery, regional PAF concentrations were determined in gerbil brain tissue. Quantitative analysis of PAF in brain regions is performed using an electron-capture negative chemical ionization GC/MS method, modified for brain tissue.
Results The level of PAF was increased significantly and maximally in hippocampus (211%), cortex (168%), and thalamus (169%) after 1 hour of reperfusion. In contrast, there were no significant changes of PAF in any brain region from 6 hours to 96 hours after reperfusion.
Conclusions PAF is increased in gerbil brain in response to ischemia at early stages of reperfusion. PAF increases could contribute to the onset and progress of ischemic neuropathology.
Key Words: platelet-activating factor spectrum analysis, mass gerbils
| Introduction |
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The direct measurement of PAF in neuronal tissues has not been reported previously in analogous animal models. We have modified GC/MS methods of PAF quantitative analysis5 6 for the present study. Measurements of PAF concentrations by bioassay or immunoassay methods lack the specificity and sensitivity required for quantitative regional brain concentration measurements.7 Furthermore, determination of PAF bioactivity is ambiguous because PAF homologues and analoguesexhibit variable PAF activities,8 and other lipid mediators present in tissue may influence platelet activation. The published GC/MS methods for PAF derive the required sensitivity by using ECNCI MS, and specificity for brain tissue is achieved in the present study with selective chromatographic separations.
| Materials and Methods |
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Animal Experiments
Eighty-nine female Mongolian gerbils
(Meriones
unguiculatus, Harlan Sprague-Dawley) weighing 50 to 60 g
were used in these experiments. They were housed in Plexiglas cages for
at least 7 days before study on a 12-hour dark/light cycle. Food and
water were allowed ad libitum through the acclimatization and study
periods. Eighty-four animals (all but 5 gerbils, which were used as
controls) were anesthetized by inhalation of 2% halothane in
30% oxygen/70% nitrous oxide. A midline incision exposed both common
carotid arteries. Bilateral common arteries were occluded for 10
minutes with Heifetz aneurysm clips.9
Anesthesia was discontinued at the same time as reperfusion
was begun. The absence of carotid blood flow during the occlusion and
the resumption of flow after removal of the clips were verified
visually. Rectal temperature determined with a rectal probe (Harvard,
Homeothermic System) was maintained at 37°C to 37.5°C in all
animals with a thermostatic heating pad and infrared lamp during the
occlusion. Rectal temperature in all animals was monitored before
anesthesia, before and during ischemia, and up to 1
hour after discontinuation of anesthesia. Sham-operated
animals were treated in the same manner except for occlusion of the
bilateral common carotid arteries. Animal protocols were approved by
the National Institute of Mental Health and National Institute of
Neurological Disorders and Stroke animal care and use committees.
After the designated times of reperfusion, 53 ischemic animals and 31 sham-operated animals were decapitated. The brains were removed, and cerebral cortex, striatum, hippocampus, thalamus, and cerebellum were quickly put on ice. Immediately each prepared brain region was disrupted using a Polytron in 10 volumes of ethanol and water mixture (1:1 vol/vol) containing 0.18% formic acid for inactivation of endogenous acid-labile acetylhydrolase and 500 pg d3 PAF and 50 ng d4 lyso-PAF as internal standards for PAF and lyso-PAF assays. Homogenates were frozen at -80°C until analyzed.
PAF Extraction From Brain and Derivatization
Brain PAF and
lyso-PAF extraction and derivatization conditions
were modified from published methods as follows.5 6
Brain
tissue homogenates containing d3 PAF,
d4 lyso-PAF, and formic acid were centrifuged at
10 000g for 10 minutes at 4°C, and the supernatants from
brain homogenates were applied to C-18packed cartridges
(100 mg C-18/1 mL, Varian Associates) previously conditioned with 5 mL
methanol followed by 5 mL water. The cartridges were washed with 5 mL
water followed by 5 mL methanol/water (1:1 vol/vol), and the
PAF-containing fraction was eluted with 5 mL methanol. The methanol
eluate was loaded onto a silica-packed cartridge (500 mg silica/2.8
mL, Varian), preconditioned with 5 mL ethanol, and then rinsed with 5
mL ethanol. PAF was eluted from silica-packed cartridges with 4 mL
methanol/water (3:1 vol/vol), and that fraction was evaporated in a
centrifugal vacuum dryer. The dry residue was hydrolyzed to diglyceride
and extracted simultaneously by shaking with a mixture of
0.5 mL 49% hydrofluoric acid and 1 mL hexane for 3 hours at room
temperature in a polyethylene tube. The hexane layer was evaporated to
dryness under nitrogen stream, and the residue was derivatized with 25
µL 0.5% PFBz-Cl and 1% DMAP at 60°C for 15 minutes. The
derivatized and dried diglyceride was redissolved in 30 µL decane
admixed with 500 µL water. The top decane layer was transferred to
injection vials for injection into the GC/MS instrument.
GC/MS of PAF and Lyso-PAF
Quantitative analyses of PAF and
lyso-PAF were performed
by ECNCI GC/MS as previously described5 6 with a
Hewlett-Packard 5890 GC/5970 and 5989 quadrupole analyzer. Gas
chromatography was performed on a 15-m DB-17 (J&W
Scientific) capillary column of 0.25-mm ID and 0.25-µm film. The PFBz
glycerides were analyzed by selected ion monitoring techniques
to record ions specific for PAF (m/z, 552),
d3 PAF (m/z, 555), lyso-PAF (m/z,
704), and d4 lyso-PAF (m/z, 708). The initial
column temperature was 210°C (1 minute) and then was programmed to
235°C at 50°C/min. At this point, the temperature was increased to
243°C at 1°C/min and then to 300°C at 20°C/min. The injector
temperature was 280°C, and the GC/MS interface line temperature was
310°C. Helium was used as a carrier gas, and 1 µL of the sample was
injected in the splitless mode. The detection limit of the PAF assay
was
25 pg per sample (ie, injection of 1 µL containing
1 pg)
and that of lyso-PAF was
100 pg per sample.
Statistical Analyses
All values presented are mean±1
SEM. Results were
analyzed by computerized statistical packages (SuperANOVA,
Statview II). Each mean value was compared by one-way ANOVA and
Fisher's protected least significant difference for multiple
comparisons as the post hoc test. A value of P<.05 is
reported as statistically significant.
| Results |
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800 mg) of a
sham-operated animal (1 hour after surgery) and of an
ischemic animal (1 hour after reperfusion) are measurable and
distinct from those of the procedural blanks. The abundance of PAF and
lyso-PAF ion currents corresponds to 2.9 ng/g tissue and 0.87 µg/g
tissue for the sham-operated and 6.0 ng/g tissue and 0.88 µg/g
tissue for the ischemic animals, respectively.
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Effect of Transient Cerebral Ischemia on Regional Brain PAF
and Lyso-PAF Concentrations
The regional brain PAF concentrations at
0, 15, and 30 minutes and
1, 3, 6, 24, 48, and 96 hours after 10 minutes of cerebral
ischemia were investigated (Fig 2
). At 30
minutes to 3 hours after ischemia, the concentrations of
PAF were significantly increased in hippocampus and cortex and were
maximal after 1 hour of reperfusion. Significant PAF concentration
increases were observed 1 and 3 hours after reperfusion in thalamus
also and after 3 hours in striatum. In contrast to significant
increases of PAF concentrations acutely, there were no significant
changes of PAF in any brain region from 6 hours to 96 hours after
reperfusion. Notably, no significant changes in PAF concentration
occurred at any time in the cerebellum, a region that does not become
ischemic, because cerebellar blood supply was preserved in this
model. In addition, no differences were observed between normal control
gerbils and sham-operated gerbils in the designated times of
reperfusion, whereas significant increases in PAF levels resulted from
ischemic insult.
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Lyso-PAF levels in hippocampus, cortex, thalamus,
striatum, and
cerebellum of control animals were 316-, 493-, 167-, 143-, and 279-fold
higher than PAF levels in each brain region, respectively. At 1 hour
after reperfusion, there was no significant difference in lyso-PAF
levels between control and ischemic animals
(Table
), and these lyso-PAF levels did not change during
the experimental period of reperfusion (data not shown).
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| Discussion |
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Arachidonic acid appears to play an important role in the regulation of PAF biosynthesis17 because PAF precursors contain more than 80% arachidonate at the C-2 position,18 and PAF synthesis is remarkably inhibited in arachidonic aciddepleted polymorphonuclear leukocytes.19 During occlusion, free arachidonic acid increases markedly in ischemic gerbil brain tissue, and then during reperfusion the level rapidly decreases.20 Free arachidonic acid is metabolized through cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase, or other metabolic pathways.21 Levels of cyclooxygenase products of arachidonic acid metabolism in brain are not changed during ischemia; however, these arachidonic acid metabolites increase rapidly during reperfusion (5 to 120 minutes).22 The relatively rapid production of PAF during the reperfusion period (1 to 3 hours) may be highly correlated to the rapid production of the arachidonic acid metabolites.
PAF is synthesized rapidly and locally by acetylation of lyso-PAF via activation of acetyltransferase. Lyso-PAF results from the activation of a specific phospholipase A2 that removes the C-2position fatty acid from alkylacyl-GPC.23 The activation of these PAF synthetic enzymes depends on cell activation and requires the presence of Ca2+.1 A high level of intracellular Ca2+ is a known trigger of ischemic neuronal cell death.24 25 Recently, the changes of intracellular Ca2+ levels in brain transient ischemic models have been reported. Silver and Erecinska26 observed approximately 30-fold intracellular Ca2+ increases in rat hippocampus (CA1) soon after occlusion and during the immediate postischemic period, which normalized after 20 minutes to the control level. Greenberg et al27 documented a similar intracellular Ca2+ change pattern in the cat transient ischemic model. PAF synthesis in the early stage of the reperfusion period (1 to 3 hours) can be stimulated markedly by influx of Ca2+, activating phospholipase A2 and acetyltransferase by raising the intracellular Ca2+ concentration.28 In contrast, 1-alkyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol phosphocholine transferase, which catalyzes the final step in the de novo route of PAF synthesis, is inhibited in vitro by Ca2+.29 It is generally accepted that the remodeling route is stimulated by inflammatory agents but has low activity in resting cells, while the de novo route has highest activity in resting cells.30 Thus, the production of PAF in the ischemic brain is expected to derive mainly from the remodeling route of PAF synthesis.
In stimulated cells, lyso-PAF is an obligatory intermediate for both
biosynthesis and inactivation of PAF in its synthetic pathway. Lyso-PAF
is a degradation product of PAF in both the de novo and remodeling
routes but is a precursor only in the remodeling route. Lyso-PAF level
changes in the brain as a precursor or a degradation product of PAF
are likely after ischemic insult; however, the lyso-PAF pool is
very large relative to PAF level changes, and no lyso-PAF concentration
changes were detected in our studies (Table
). In catabolic and
anabolic
pathways of lyso-PAF, hydrolysis of alkylacyl-GPC by phospholipase
A2, acetylation of lyso-PAF by
acetyltransferase, and deacylation of PAF by acetylhydrolase are
Ca2+-dependent, whereas reacylation of lyso-PAF by coenzyme
Adependent acyltransferase is inhibited by
Ca2+.1 Presumably, increased intracellular
Ca2+ in ischemic brain affects the activities of
those enzymes. However, the changes of those lyso-PAF
metabolic enzymes are not sufficient to change the large
lyso-PAF pool level.
The cellular origin of PAF synthesis after ischemia is not known. PAF is produced by appropriate stimulation in a variety of cells, including monocytes,31 macrophages,32 glial cells,3 and neurons.33 Macrophage/monocyte infiltration is exhibited in areas of infarction 2 to 6 days after transient gerbil ischemia.34 Moreover, although immunocytochemically the number of active microglia increased in rat hippocampus as early as 20 minutes after reperfusion, the strongest microglial reaction was observed 4 to 6 days after reperfusion of rat transient ischemia.35 In our studies, significant PAF increases were not observed at 6 hours and later after ischemia, suggesting that the acute rise and subsequent normalization of PAF levels may not be due to trafficking macrophages, monocytes, or activated microglia. It is possible that PAF is synthesized by neurons; however, further studies are need to determine which cells are directly related to the rapid production of PAF after ischemic brain injury. Such questions may be explored in cell culture studies using the highly specific and sensitive GC/MS methods.
Although there have been questions raised in the literature as to whether PAF is related to the onset and progress of brain ischemic damage, the PAF changes in brain after ischemia have not been reported previously. Quantitative analysis of PAF with GC/MS using modifications of published procedures is feasible and permits accurate determinations in regional normal and ischemic gerbil brain. In this study, we show that there are significant PAF increases in the early reperfusion phase of ischemia by using GC/MS methods for PAF analysis and that the degree of regional increase in the brain was consistent with the vulnerability of each brain region for ischemic insult. Because the activities of PAF synthetic enzymes are regulated by Ca2+, rapid response of PAF production may be related to Ca2+ influx in the early reperfusion phase of ischemia.
| Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms |
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| Acknowledgments |
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Received August 23, 1995; revision received December 5, 1995; accepted December 6, 1995.
| References |
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