6533b821fe1ef96bd127c367

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The isolated perfused rat brain as a model for studying drugs acting on the CNS

subject

description

An isolated perfused brain preparation is regarded as offering some important advantages over intact animals or tissue slices for studying drug effects on the CNS. The rat is by far the most suitable laboratory animal for this technique because of low cost, ease of preparation and extensive literature available for comparative purposes. In this paper various preparation techniques and perfusion systems for an isolated rat brain are reported. Investigations are presented proving the viability of the isolated perfused rat brain for more than seven hours and its suitability for studies on cerebral metabolism. Until now this preparation has been successfully used for pharmacological investigations concerning the drug effects on cerebral energy metabolism, on the EEG and on the biogenic amines in the CNS. The results further demonstrate that the use of an isolated perfused rat brain affords the possibility of clarifying pharmacological problems which has not been possible using conventional methods. In addition, this preparation should become a very useful tool for studies on pharmacokinetics, on brain circulation or on brain oxygen consumption.