Electrical stimulation of cerebellar fastigial nucleus fails to rematch blood flow and metabolism in focal ischemic infarctions

Electrical stimulation of the cerebellar fastigial nucleus (FN) in rat (1 h) reduces, by 50%, the infarction produced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO). We investigated whether salvage was associated with elevations in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and/or reductions of regional cerebral glucose utilization (rCGU) in the retrievable zone (RZ). rCGU and rCBF were measured autoradiographically 1 h after MCAO. MCAO reduced rCBF to <15% in the irretrievable zone (IZ) and ~50% in the RZ (P < 0.01 for each) while FN stimulation alone globally elevated rCBF by ~60% (P < 0.01). rCGU was not changed. After MCAO, FN stimulation failed to increase the reduced rCBF but elevated rCGU globally (to ~30%). Reductions of focal ischemic infarctions by stimulating FN cannot be attributed to changes in rCBF and or rCGU.