Article reprint Sciencemag.com by: AI Faden, P Demediuk, SS Panter and R Vink

cience 19 May 1989: 
Vol. 244 no. 4906 pp. 798-800 
DOI: 10.1126/science.2567056

The role of excitatory amino acids and NMDA receptors in traumatic brain injury

1. AI Faden, 
2. P Demediuk, 
3. SS Panter and 
4. R Vink

+Author Affiliations

1. Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco.

ABSTRACT

Brain injury induced by fluid percussion in rats caused a marked elevation in extracellular glutamate and aspartate adjacent to the trauma site. This increase in excitatory amino acids was related to the severity of the injury and was associated with a reduction in cellular bioenergetic state and intracellular free magnesium. Treatment with the noncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist dextrophan or the competitive antagonist 3-(2-carboxypiperazin-4-yl)propyl-1-phosphonic acid limited the resultant neurological dysfunction; dextrorphan treatment also improved the bioenergetic state after trauma and increased the intracellular free magnesium. Thus, excitatory amino acids contribute to delayed tissue damage after brain trauma; NMDA antagonists may be of benefit in treating acute head injury.

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