[Studies on the mechanism of protection of cultured neurous by ketamine anoxia/reoxygenation-induced injury].

The effects of anoxia/reoxygenation (A/R) and glutamate on cultured cortical neurons from 16 to 18-day-old fetal rats and the protective effect of ketamine were studied. The 12-day cultures of 12 days were exposed to anoxia (5 h) followed by reoxygenation (0-24 h). Following progressive A/R, the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) into the bathing medium obviously increased and exogenous glutamate (3 h) also markedly increased the release of LDH. When the cultures were pretreated with ketamine before A/R, the amounts of LDH efflux in culture medium were significantly less than those of controls. These results demonstrate that the cultured cortical neurons are seriously damaged by A/R and exogenous glutamate. Such damage could be attenuated by ketamine, suggesting that the neurotoxic effect of glutamate and NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors play an important role in the process of ischemia-induced damage in the brain.