Magnesium Research 1991, 4, 3/4, 246.
Regional distribution of magnesium in the cerebral tissues in
normal and magnesium deficient rat
S. Poenaru, P. Aymard, J. Durlach, R. Manicom, L. Poenaru, S.
Rouhani, Y. Rayssiguier, E. Emmanouilidis, E. Gueux, N. Nkanga,
A. Soulairac
Laboratoire de Neuroendocrinologie, UFR Biomédicale
des Saints-Pères, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006
Paris, France
Experiments were carried out for forty days in two
groups of male Wistar rats: a study group of 12 rats made
magnesium-deficient (MD), and a control group (CG) of 12 rats fed
normal diet.
The magnesium-deficient diet contained 20% casein,
70.5% starch, 5% maize oil, 3.5% mineral mix and 1% vitamin mix.
The magnesium content was 50 milligrams per kilogram of food. The
normal diet had the same composition but was supplemented with
magnesium oxide increasing the magnesium content to 1 gram per
kilogram of food.
We used the technique of Glowinski and Iversen with
our own modifications. Immediately after decapitation, rat brains
were cooled and finely dissected.
We isolated twelve cerebral structures: the brain stem (B.S.)
cerebellum (CB), hypothalamus (HT), thalamus (T), inferior and
superior colliculi (CIF and CS), olfactory bulb (OB), tuberculum
olfactorium (OTU), septum (S), hippocampus (Hi), cortex
piriformis (PIR), corpus striatum (CST) and the cortex (C).
Tissue content of magnesium was carried out with the technique
of MacIntyre & Davidson. In the magnesium-deficient group we
noted the clinical and biological signs of experimental magnesium
deficiency. In the control group intracerebral magnesium level
varies, with a maximum of 27%, from 133.24 to 168.81 µg/g.
In the magnesium group a 35 % maximum variation was noted (from
121.00 to 164.40 µg/g).
The topographic distribution reveals higher Mg2+
level in OTU, CST and T in control group and in CIF and CS in
deficient group. The lower Mg2+ level was observed in
control group in CG, in HT, CIF and CS, OB, S and C while in
deficient group only in S and C.
Our study stresses that:
- Intracerebral Mg2+ varies from one structure to
another, both in normal and in magnesium-deficient rat;
- Intracerebral concentration of magnesium is twice or three
times higher in the control and in the deficient group
respectively compared to the intraerythrocytary magnesium
level;
- global cerebral magnesium homeostasis is maintained in
magnesium-deficient rat.
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