PMID: 9553965Apr 29, 1998Paper

Lead potentiates cytokine- and glutamate-mediated increases in permeability of the blood-brain barrier

Neurotoxicology
V A DyatlovD O Carpenter

Abstract

We have measured the transendothelial electrical resistance across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) with a microelectrode technique and determined the effects of subcutaneous injections (five injections over ten days) of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 100 ng/g), recombinant mouse interleukin-6 (IL-6, 5 ng/g), and/or inorganic lead (lead, 2.5 5 micrograms/g) on the ion permeability of arterioles in the temporoparietal cortex of anaesthetized mice between 10 and 40 days of age. In controls the electrical resistance increased with age. It was decreased in animals treated with IL-6, but unaffected by lead at the different ages studied. In IL-6 treated mice, repeated neonatal exposure to lead (five injections between 2 and 10 days after birth) caused a delay in the increase in arteriole resistance with age. LPS injections caused a 36% increase in ion permeability of the BBB in twenty-day-old mice, and lead potentiated this effect of LPS. Intra-arterial injections of glutamate did not alter vascular resistance, but topical applications of glutamate on the cerebrum caused a reversible decrease in the resistance in mice not treated with lead, and an irreversible decrease in mice treated with lead. Injections of glutamate in the lumen of arteria...Continue Reading

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