NEUROTOXICITY OF ALBUMIN IN-VIVO

The neurotoxicity of albumin was studied in the rat. Solutions of rat albumin (3, 10 and 30 mg/ml) essentially free of fatty acids and globu lins were injected into one neostriatum, physiological saline into the other. Injections were also performed with sodium glutamate (10 and 3 0 mM). Both albumin and glutamate produced lesions in a concentration- dependent manner. Thus 3, 10 and 30 mg/ml albumin produced lesions in excess of saline of 22 +/- 24 mu m(3), 67 +/- 25 mu m(3) and 170 +/- 4 4 mu m(3), (P = 0.82, 0.03 and 0.0005, respectively). 10 and 30 mM sod ium glutamate caused lesions of 45 +/- 14 mu m(3) and 315 +/- 56 mu m( 3) in excess of saline (P = 0.04 and 0.0004, respectively). Injection of 10 mg/ml albumin together with 10 mM sodium glutamate caused lesion s of 70 +/- 11 mu m(3) in excess of saline (P = 0.005). This was not s ignificantly different from the lesions caused by any of the two subst ances alone. Thus no potentiating effect of one substance on the toxic ity of the other was seen in this study. The neurotoxicity of albumin could be of importance in disease states which are accompanied by leak iness of the blood-brain barrier.