The aim of this study was to monitor dynamic changes in energy-related metabolites in the cortex of gerbils subjected to cerebral ischemia by a dual probe microdialysis technique. Focal cerebral ischemia was produced in anesthetized gerbils by occlusion of the right common carotid artery and the right middle cerebral artery for 60 min. Two microdialysis probes were inserted into both sides of the cortex to simultaneously monitor extracellular glucose, lactate, pyruvate and glutamate. Dynamic and comparative changes in these analytes, on the ipsilateral and contralateral sides of the brain, were simultaneously monitored by liquid chromatography and a microdialysis analyzer. The present study demonstrated decreases in glucose and pyruvate, increases in lactate and glutamate on the ipsilateral side whereas all analytes remain constant on the contralateral side of cortex during cerebral ischemia. In vitro recovery of each microdialysis probe was performed to ensure the quality of experiments. The detection limits of pyruvate, glutamate, lactate and glucose were 0.2, 1.0, 2.0 and 20 microM, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay correlations were less than 5% in standard mixtures and pooled brain dialysates.