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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neurobiol Dis. 2009 Oct 29;37(2):403. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2009.10.020

Table 1.

Effect of excitotoxic stimulation on elemental concentrations in cytoplasm and mitochondria of CA1 and CA3 hippocampal neurons

n Na Mg Cl P K Ca
(kg/kg dry weight)
Cytoplasm
CA1
 Controla 24 29±5 34±3 74±4 510±26 549±38 0.7±0.8b
 NMDA 58 666±20 31±2 510±20 356±13 58±4 38±1.9
 Recovery 2 h 25 247±32* 37±5 183±14* 440±39 382±24* 3.8±0.4*
 NMDA+MK-801 34 132±22* 34±3 123±15* 431±22 362±20* 3.2±2.0*
CA3
 NMDAc 35 642±26 41±3** 443±25** 551±42** 131±11** 10±1.7**
Mitochondria
CA1
 Controla 20 16±5 33±4 35±4 402±15 389±15 −1.7±1.4b
 NMDAd 63 406±28 23±3 330±23 526±53 46±6 421±86
 Recovery 2 h 28 96±14* 36±3* 80±7* 345±13 283±14* 3.4±2.0*
 NMDA+MK-801 30 49±12* 33±2* 44±7* 392±17 297±16* 1.7±0.8*
CA3
 NMDAc,d 47 346±42 27±2** 286±38 401±27 112±13** 121±51**

Cultures were frozen immediately after exposure to NMDA (100 μM) or to NMDA with MK-801 (20μM) for 30 min. Data are given as mean ± SEM in kg/kg dry weight. The number of neurons analyzed was 10–12 for each condition, taken from slices of three different animals; n is the number of analyses.

a

For both cytoplasm and mitochondria, Mg, P and Ca concentrations in ‘Control’ were not different from ‘Recovery’ or ‘NMDA+MK-801’. ‘Control’ concentrations of Na, Cl are lower, while K is higher (p<0.05).

b

Below detection limit.

c

A small fraction of cells, ~15%, was not different from CA1 ‘Control’.

d

Average concentrations from a random sample of mitochondria that are heterogeneous with respect to the presence or absence of Ca-rich precipitates. In CA1 neurons Ca concentrations were 1324±139 (~30%) and 31±3 (~70%) kg/kg for mitochondria with and without precipitates, respectively. In CA3 comparable mitochondrial Ca concentrations were 1036±71 (~10%) and 12±3 (~90%) kg/kg.

*

Different from CA1 NMDA stimulation by ANOVA with post-hoc Dunnett multiple comparisons test for cytoplasm and nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis rank ANOVA with post-hoc Dunn’s test for unbalanced data for mitochondria, p < 0.05.

**

Different from CA1 NMDA stimulation by two-tailed unpaired t test for cytoplasm and nonparametric Mann-Whitney test for mitochondria, p < 0.05.