Cardiovascular Collapse/Methamphetamine Fatality Figure 4. Methamphetamine induced necrotic cell death in RVLM. Representative photomicrographs of tissues stained by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) showing nuclear pyknosis and chromatolysis in RVLM neurons of rats that received saline (A–C) or died of METH (48 mg/kg, i.v.) (D–F). These results are typical of 4–5 animals from each experimental group. Scale bar, 5 mm. NA, nucleus ambiguus; n, nucleus; yellow arrow, chromatolysis in RVLM neuron; white arrow, karyorrhexis in RVLM neurons; green symbol (*), karyolysis in RVLM neuron. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0030589.g004 management or developing therapeutic strategies against the increasing number of sudden death from METH abusers. Since the mechanisms that we identified for METH-induced cardiovas- cular collapse are also shared by other pathologies, including brain death and resuscitation of an arrested heart, our observations may have even broader clinical ramifications. PLoS ONE | www.plosone.org 7 January 2012 | Volume 7 | Issue 1 | e30589