초록
Changes of single unit activity of CA1 hippocampus region were investigated in anesthetized Mongolian gerbils for six days following transient ischemia. Ischemia was produced immediately before the implantation of micro-wire recording electrodes. In control animals receiving pseudo-ischemic surgery, neither spontaneous neuronal activities ($5.70{\pm}0.4Hz$) nor the number of recorded neurons per animal changed significantly for six days. Correlative firings among simultaneously recorded neurons were weak (correlation coefficient > 0.6) in the control animals. Animals subjected to ischemia exhibited a significant elevation of neural firing at post-ischemic 12 hr ($9.95{\pm}0.9Hz$) and day 1 ($8.48{\pm}0.8Hz$), but a significant depression of activity at post-ischemic day 6 ($1.84{\pm}0.3Hz$) when compared to the activities of non-ischemic control animal. Ischemia significantly (correlation coefficient > 0.6) increased correlative firings among simultaneously recorded neurons, which were prominent especially during post-ischemic days 1, 2 and 6. Although the numbers of spontaneously active neurons recorded from control group varied within normal range during the experimental period, those from ischemic group changed in post-ischemic time-dependent manner. Temporal changes of the number of cells recorded per animal between control group and ischemic group were also significantly different (p = 0.0084, t = 3.271, df = 10). Cresyl violet staining indicated significant loss of CA1 cells at post-ischemic day 7. Overall, we showed post-ischemic time-dependent, differential changes of three characteristics, including spontaneous activity, network relationship and excitability of CA1 cells, suggesting sustained neural functions. Thus, histological observation of CA1 cell death till post-ischemic day 7 may not represent actual neuronal death.