Electron microscopic and chemical studies of the vascular changes and edema of lead encephalopathy. A comparative study of the human and experimental disease.

Lead encephalopathy was induced in suckling rats by administering lead to the mother. The brains were studied by light and electron microscopy, and the results were compared with observations in the human disease as well as in cases of cerebral ischemia in children. In their severe forms, both human and experimental lead encephalopathies are characterized by exudative extracellular edema and perivascular PAS-positive globules. The latter consist of osmiophilic non-membrane-limited cytoplasmic inclusions located, in the rat exclusively and in the human predominantly, in perivascular astrocytes. Intervascular strands are also found in both forms of the disease. In the rat these consist of basement membrane surrounding endothelial cytoplasm. Chemically, experimental lead encephalopathy with morphologically demonstrable edema is associated with an increase in brain water, sodium and serum albumin. Relative to the serum concentration, the increase in water is disproportionately greater than the sodium or albumin. There were no demonstrable changes in chloride or potassium.