Ontogeny of blood-brain barrier function in ovine fetuses, lambs
and adults.
Stonestreet, Barbara S., Clifford S. Patlak, Karen D. Pettigrew,
Christopher B. Reilly, Helen F. Cserr.
Brown University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics,
Women and Infants' Hospital of Rhode Island and Section of
Physiology, Providence, Rhode Island 02905, Department of Surgery,
SUNY at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8191, Division of
Epidemiology and Services Research, National Institute of Mental
Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892
APStracts 3:0215R, 1996.
The ontogeny of regional blood-brain barrier function was quantified
with the rate constant (Ki) for influx across the blood-brain barrier
using a small molecular weight synthetic inert hydrophilic amino
acid, [alpha]-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB), in chronically instrumented
early (87 days of gestation, 60% of gestation), late (137 days of
gestation, 90% of gestation) gestation fetal, newborn (3 days of
age), older (24 days of age), and adult (3 years of age) sheep. The
Ki was significantly (P<0.05) lower in the brain regions of the
adult sheep and in most brain regions of newborn and older lambs
compared with fetuses at 60% and 90% of gestation. The Ki exhibited
regional brain heterogeneity (P<0.05) in the five groups. The
patterns of regional heterogeneity were accentuated (P<0.05) in
the younger groups. We conclude that ontogenic decreases in blood
-brain barrier permeability are observed in ovine fetuses from 60% of
gestation up to maturity in the adult.
Received 16 January 1996; accepted in final form 22 May 1996.
APS Manuscript Number R23-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Regulatory Integrative
Comp. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 17 June 96