Phospholipid composition in the spinal cord regions after sublethal ischaemia followed by short- and long-lasting reperfusions

The degradation of membrane lipids is an important factor in the pathogenes is of ischaemic damage and may reflect the extent of ischaemia/reperfusion injury of CNS. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes of memb rane-bound phospholipids, sphingomyelin (SM), phosphatidylcholine (PC), pho sphatidylserine (PS), phosphatidylinositol (PI), phosphatic acid (PA) and p hosphatidylethanolamine (PE) in five spinal cord regions after sublethal (8 min) ischaemia followed by 1 h or 24 h of reperfusion. Sublethal ischaemia followed by ih of reperfusion caused a significant degradation of SM in th e dorsal horns and of SM, PC and PS in the intermediate zone. On the other hand, a significant increase of PI and PA concentrations was detected in th e gray matter taken as a whole. The extent of damage of membrane-bound phos pholipids in three gray matter regions varied in descending order: intermed iate zone >dorsal horns>ventral horns. Sublethal ischaemia followed by 24 h of reperfusion increased the concentration of all phospholipids compared w ith the control group. However, the dorsal horns of the spinal cord were sh own to be the site of a considerably enhanced resynthesis of phospholipids.