Resuscitation
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Comparative Study
Microglial depletion using intrahippocampal injection of liposome-encapsulated clodronate in prolonged hypothermic cardiac arrest in rats.
Trauma patients who suffer cardiac arrest (CA) from exsanguination rarely survive. Emergency preservation and resuscitation using hypothermia was developed to buy time for resuscitative surgery and delayed resuscitation with cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), but intact survival is limited by neuronal death associated with microglial proliferation and activation. Pharmacological modulation of microglia may improve outcome following CA. ⋯ Thus, intrahippocampal injection of LEC attenuated microglial proliferation by ∼40%, but did not alter neuronal death. This suggests that microglia may not play a pivotal role in mediating neuronal death in prolonged hypothermic CA. This novel strategy provides us with a tool to study the specific effects of microglia in hypothermic CA.