Ubiquitinated structures in the white matter of the gerbil following chronic cerebral hypoperfusion.

Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion was produced in adult gerbils aged 3-6 months following bilateral stenosis of the carotid artery lasting 8 weeks. Animals with no evidence of cerebral infarction were used in the present study. Ubiquitin-immunoreactive free granules in the subcortical cerebral white matter and corpus callosum were observed in five of 12 animals. No similar lesions were found in sham-operated animals, age-matched controls, and gerbils subjected to transient forebrain ischaemia for 20 min and killed at different intervals. These results indicate that diffuse damage of the subcortical white matter may be encountered as the only neuropathological change following chronic hypoperfusion.