Specific gravity increases and brain water content decreases during short epileptiform seizures in discrete rabbit brain areas.

In rabbits subjected to bicuculline (BC)- or pentylenetetrazole (PTZ)-seizures of 3 or 20 min duration or to adrenaline-induced hypertension, specific gravity (SG) was measured bilaterally in 15 regional brain areas in order to detect possible associations between the regionally limited blood-brain barrier openings due to these insults (see Nitsch and Klatzo 1983) and the presence of brain edema. In controls, a large variation between regional SG levels became evident: between 1.0467 in cerebellum and 1.0417 in preoptic area. A seizure duration of only 3 min was not sufficient to change SG significantly. After 20 min of seizures independent from the inducing agent, SG increased in all brain areas. The degree of increase seemed to be unrelated to presence or absence of a blood-brain barrier opening. In an attempt to avoid the influence of blood impregnation on the SG value, blood was replaced by saline before measurement. In controls, saline perfusion decreased SG only in the two areas with the highest original levels, thus documenting the partial dependency of the regional SG on the hematisation of the tissue. After 20 min of PTZ-induced seizures, SG in saline-perfused rabbits increased, but no longer significantly in all brain areas. This suggests that a part of the seizure-induced SG increase can be attributed to the hyperemia of the brain during the convulsions. On the other hand, an increase in flow volume due to hypertension did not change SG with the exception of the septum, preoptic area and hypothalamus. The direct measurement of water content with the classical wet/dry method in 4 gross brain areas showed that early seizure periods are in fact associated with a dehydration of the brain. This phenomenon could be explained by a glucose- and lactate-induced rise in blood osmolarity which in turn might cause a dehydration of the brain tissue.