ORIGINAL PAPER The Study of Na + ,K + -ATPase Activity of Rat Brain during Crush Syndrome N. Desai Shanti Æ P. V. Desai Accepted: 1 May 2007 / Published online: 12 June 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract Crush syndrome (CS) results from severe traumatic damage to the organism that is characterized by stress, acute homeostatic failure of the tissues, and myo- globinuria with severe intoxication. This leads to an acute impairment of kidneys and heart. The peripheral and cen- tral nervous systems are also the subject of significant changes in CS. Na + ,K + -ATPase is a critical enzyme in neuron that is essential for the regulation of neuronal membrane potential, cell volume as well as transmembrane fluxes of Ca ++ and Excitatory Amino Acids. In the present study, Na + , K + -ATPase activity of rat brain regions [Olfactory lobes (OL), Cerebral cortex (CC), Cerebellum (CL), and Medulla oblongata (MO)] during CS was investigated. Experimental model of CS in albino rats was induced by 2-h of compression followed by 2, 24, and 48-h of decompression of femoral muscle tissue. In this study, we have observed elevation in Na + ,K + -ATPase activity above normal/control levels in all parts of brain (OL: 34.4%; CC: 1.0%; CL: 3.3% and MO: 45%) during 2-h compression in comparison to controls. Keywords Na + Á K + -ATPase in crush syndrome Á ATPases in brain Introduction Crush syndrome (CS) is a composite pathological condition developed after compression failure of skeletal soft tissues that results from severe traumatic damage to the organism characterized by stress, pain, acute hemodynamic shock, myoglobinuria, and total intoxication [1, 2]. Serious dam- age has been observed in the function and structure of kidneys. In most cases, such disturbances lead to a high level of mortality, which is caused by acute heart failure or acute renal insufficiency [3]. The peripheral and central nervous systems are also the subject of significant changes in CS. Facial nerve crush during different stages of postnatal development causes loss of neurons, showing a direct correlation between the injury and the age of the experimental animals [4]. The most marked changes in the nervous system have been found during the decompression period. Quantitative and ultrastructure alterations, as well as neuron cell death has been discovered 3–6 months after the crushing of the sci- atic nerve, depending on the time and force of crushing [5]. The most important damage resulting from the crushing of the spinal cord is axonal damage. Na + ,K + -ATPases’ isozymes exhibit a complex pattern of expression and structural heterogeneity, which is strin- gently regulated allowing the enzyme activity to match the cell requirements under the physiological and pathological conditions. Na + ,K + -ATPase activity is known to decrease in cerebral ischemia [6], in epilepsy [7], and in various neurodegenerative disorders [8]. However, there is hardly any report on changes in Na + ,K + -ATPase activity during CS. Na + ,K + -ATPase is a critical enzyme in neurons which is likely to be affected by CS [5] and is also essential for the regulation of neuronal membrane potential, cell volume [9] as well as transmembrane fluxes of Ca ++ and Excitatory Amino Acids whose transport is linked to that of Na + [8]. Therefore, it was felt appropriate to investigate the changes in Na + ,K + -ATPase activity from four functionally impor- tant regions of brain viz. olfactory lobes (OL), cerebral cortex (CC), cerebellum (CL), and medulla oblongata (MO) of rats subjected to CS. N. Desai Shanti Á P. V. Desai (&) Department of Zoology, Goa University, Panaji, Goa, India e-mail: pv26in@yahoo.co.in; pvdesai@unigoa.ac.in 123 Neurochem Res (2007) 32:1843–1848 DOI 10.1007/s11064-007-9370-5