R. Nikolov et al., ENDOTHELIN-1 EXACERBATES FOCAL CEREBRAL-ISCHEMIA WITHOUT EXERTING NEUROTOXIC ACTION IN-VITRO, European journal of pharmacology. Environmental toxicology and pharmacology section, 248(2), 1993, pp. 205-208
In a model of focal cerebral ischemia in mice, intracisternal injectio
n of 5 and 10 pmol/mouse endothelin-1 significantly increased the infa
rcted surface area by 15.5% and by 23.5%, respectively. Endothelin-1 (
0.01, 1, and 100 nmol/l) added to the primary neuronal cultures of chi
ck embryo cerebral hemispheres for 1 h and 24 h did not influence the
viability of the neurons or the protein content of the cultures. When
applied simultaneously with 1 mmol/I sodium cyanide for 30 min, endoth
elin-I (0.01, 1, and 100 nM) did not modify the hypoxia-induced change
s. The results show that exogenously applied endothelin-1 could exacer
bate cerebral ischemia, probably due to its vasoconstrictive propertie
s and not to a direct neurotoxic effect.