Glucose uptake in mouse brain regions under hypoxic hypoxia.

Glucose uptake of individual structures within the brain was studied by dry-autoradiography with 2-deoxy-D-[14C(U)]glucose under mild hypoxic hypoxia (12% O2:88% N2 or 9% O2:91% N2 for 1 hr). Glucose consumption in the whole brain was estimated by combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Mild hypoxia increased the optical density of the autoradiograph in all regions. The deuterated G-6-P (Glucose-6-phosphate) synthesized from deuterated glucose decreased significantly with 9% O2 hypoxia (P less than 0.05). The ratio of the deuterated G-6-P to deuterated glucose, a more appropriate indicator of glucose utilization than the concentration of deuterated G-6-P, decreased significantly with 12% O2 hypoxia (P less than 0.01). The hippocampus, white matter, colliculus superior, and corpus geniculatum laterale appeared to be particularly sensitive to hypoxia.