Effect of Lactate and Pyruvate on Cerebrocortical Microcirculation and NAD/NADH Redox State

Abstract

In the past, several humoral vasodilatators, like H⁺, K⁺, adenosine, lactate, etc., have been suggested being responsible for the coupling between cerebral blood flow CCBF) and metabolism^{2,10,11,12,13}. However, the exact mechanism of coupling is still obscure.The concentration of some of these vasodilatator substances is either not altered (Wahl and Kuschinsky¹⁷ and Winn et al.²¹: H⁺ and K⁺ concentrations in the perivascular space of pial arteries and cerebral adenosine content during moderate arterial hypotension) or altered later than CBF (Astrup et al.¹ and Morii et al.¹²: H⁺, K⁺ and lactate concentrations during arterial hypoxia), or their increase can not explain entirely the elevation of CBF (Astrup et al.¹, Dora et al.⁷, and Winn et al.²¹: K⁺ and adenosine concentrations during arterial hypoxia and epileptic seizures).Because it has been demonstrated that H⁺, K⁺, and adenosine are potent dilatators of the pial arteries^2,11,16, but such data were not available for lactate, we investigated the vasodilatating efficacy of lactate.