To verify whether lipid peroxidation is associated with focal cerebral ischemia, a unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion was carried out in rats. The concentrations of various endogenous antioxidants in the ischemic center were measured, including alpha-tocopherol and ubiquinones as lipid-soluble antioxidants and ascorbate as a water-soluble antioxidant. At 30 minutes after ischemia, alpha-tocopherol decreased to 79% of baseline, reduced ubiquinone-9 to 73%, ubiquinone-10 to 66%, and reduced ascorbate to 76%. Six hours after ischemia, alpha-tocopherol decreased to 63% and reached a plateau, whereas reduced ubiquinones and reduced ascorbate declined further to 16% and 10%, respectively, 12 hours after ischemia and then reached plateau levels. These results suggest functional and durational differences between antioxidants and lipid peroxidation in this ischemic model. Although the reciprocal increase in oxidized ubiquinones during ischemia was not observed, that of oxidized ascorbate was noted. The complementary antioxidant system between cytoplasmic and membranous components, the combination alpha-tocopherol/ascorbate, was estimated from the calculated consumption ratio of these antioxidants on the basis that the loss of these reduced antioxidants is due to neutralization of free radicals. This system is suggested to play an important role in the early ischemic period. Urate also increased during ischemia. The possible involvement of the xanthine-xanthine oxidase system in initiating free radical reactions in cerebral ischemia is also discussed.