POSTNATAL CONDITIONING FOR SPREADING CORTICAL DEPRESSION IN THE RAT-BRAIN

The cerebral cortex of anaesthetised 2- to 12-day-old rats was superfu sed with artificial cerebrospinal fluid containing 100 mM acetate subs tituted for chloride to condition the brain for spreading depression ( SD). After such superfusion, the earliest SD-like events were found at day 9 and full blown SD at day 10, whereas in the unconditioned brain the first SD occurred between days 12 and 15. Acetate conditioning of the cerebral cortex may be used to unmask neuronal and glial properti es that are hidden in early stages of development. (C) 1998 Elsevier S cience B.V.