Correlation of the destructive and reparative processes in neurons of the cerebral cortex in rats after thermal injury

Rat brain sensorimotor cortical neurons were investigated in thermal trauma, using electron microscopic radioautography. RNA synthesis and destructive neuronal changes (chromatolysis, nuclear and mitochondrial damage) have been determined. It has been established that the development of a reparative process--ribosomal RNA synthesis--was roughly parallel to the appearance of destructive changes and was marked in neurons with considerable ultrastructural disturbances.