Regulation of glycogen in the dentate gyrus of the in vitro guinea pig hippocampus; effect of combined deprivation of glucose and oxygen.

Mammalian brain glycogen is adequate to support oxidative metabolism for several minutes. The present studies were done primarily to develop the guinea pig hippocampal slice as a model for studying the function and regulation of that glycogen. Slice glycogen falls to 6 nmol/mg dry wt. during the first hour of incubation at 36 degrees C but during the next 3 h recovers to 20 nmol/mg dry wt., similar to in situ values. Glycogen concentration in the dentate gyrus molecular layer is double its value in the whole hippocampal slice, suggesting its distribution is related to metabolic demand. When both glucose and oxygen are removed from the medium, glycogen and ATP fall to 50% within 6 min. The glycogen fall is unaffected by prolonged calcium depletion or by 3-isobutyl 1-methylxanthine, an adenosine antagonist. It is markedly slowed by preincubating the slice with creatine, which also slows the fall in ATP. It is concluded that ATP breakdown and subsequent increased 5'-AMP is activating glycogen mobilization in this in vitro model of ischemia.