Fig. 1. (A , 1) Experimental chamber for exposure of slices to oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) and xenon. Organotypic hippocampal brain-slice cultures grown on membrane inserts in six-well cell culture plates are placed inside the chamber. The chamber is equipped with a small fan (shown in black ) for mixing of humidified gases. The whole chamber is placed inside an incubator at 37°C. (2) Intensity histograms (black line ) showing distribution of fluorescence intensity for hippocampal slices 24 h after OGD (n = 68 slices) or sham treatment (n = 26 slices). The shaded envelope around each line indicates the SEM. Injury was quantified by integrating the area under the curves above an intensity level of 100. Inset shows an expanded view of intensity level above this threshold. (B ) Schematic representation of a typical OGD experiment. (black arrows ) Fluorescence imaging of slices, (gray arrows ) changes of culture medium, and colored areas represent different culture media: (white ) experimental medium, (dark gray ) OGD medium, and (hatched ) experimental medium with added glycine, gavestinel, and xenon where appropriate, (black bar ) period where slices are housed in the chamber. (C ) Typical propidium iodide (PI) fluorescence images of organotypic slices subjected to (1) sham-treatment, (2) oxygen-glucose deprivation, or (3) OGD plus xenon. PI is a membrane impermeable dye that enters only cells with damaged cell membranes where it becomes highly fluorescent on binding to DNA.