Protocol paper: kainic acid excitotoxicity-induced spinal cord injury paraplegia in Sprague-Dawley rats

BACKGROUND: Excitotoxicity-induced in vivo injury models are vital to reflect the pathophysiological features of acute spinal cord injury (SCI) in humans. The duration and concentration of chemical treatment controls the extent of neuronal cell damage. The extent of injury is explained in relation to locomotor and behavioural activity. Several SCI in vivo methods have been reported and studied extensively, particularly contusion, compression, and transection models. These models depict similar pathophysiology to that in humans but are extremely expensive (contusion) and require expertise (compression). Chemical excitotoxicity-induced SCI models are simple and easy while producing similar clinical manifestations. The kainic acid (KA) excitotoxicity model is a convenient, low-cost, and highly reproducible animal model of SCI in the laboratory. The basic impactor approximately cost between 10,000 and 20,000 USD, while the kainic acid only cost between 300 and 500 USD, which is quite cheap as compared to traditional SCI method. METHODS: In this study, 0.05 mM KA was administered at dose of 10 µL/100 g body weight, at a rate of 10 µL/min, to induce spinal injury by intra-spinal injection between the T12 and T13 thoracic vertebrae. In this protocol, detailed description of a dorsal laminectomy was explained to expose the spinal cord, following intra-spinal kainic acid administration at desired location. The dose, rate and technique to administer kainic acid were explained extensively to reflect a successful paraplegia and spinal cord injury in rats. The postoperative care and complication post injury of paraplegic laboratory animals were also explained, and necessary requirements to overcome these complications were also described to help researcher. RESULTS: This injury model produced impaired hind limb locomotor function with mild seizure. Hence this protocol will help researchers to induce spinal cord injury in laboratories at extremely low cost and also will help to determine the necessary supplies, methods for producing SCI in rats and treatments designed to mitigate post-injury impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Kainic acid intra-spinal injection at the concentration of 0.05 mM, and rate 10 µL/min, is an effective method create spinal injury in rats, however more potent concentrations of kainic acid need to be studied in order to create severe spinal injuries.

Evaluación comparativa entre ácido kaínic, santonina y adipato de piperazina solos y asociados como antihelmínticos: terapétuica y tolerancia / Comparative evaluation between kainic acid, santonine and piperazine adipate alone and combined as antihelminthes: therapeutics and tolerance

Se estudió a la población escolar de una zona endémica para geohelmintiasis mediante estudios coproparasitoscópicos, utilizando el método de flotación. Se seleccionaron con 200 pacientes que presentaban parasitosis por Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura y uncinaria. En un estudio posterior se valoraron por el método de frotis fecal de Kato Katz, además de realizar tres estudios por el método de raspado anal con cinta de celulosa engomada. Los pacientes se dividieron en cinco grupos y se les administró en una sola dosis: grupo 1, santonina a concentración de 66.6 mg/10 ml; grupo 2, adipato de piperazina a concentración de 1333.2 mg/10 ml, grupo 3, ácido Kaínico a concentración de 6.6 mg/10 ml; grupo 4, combinación de santonina 33.3 mg/10 ml, piperazina 666.6 mg/10 ml y ácido Kaínico 3.3 mg/10 ml, y grupo 5, adipato de piperazina a concentración de 2666.4 mg/10ml. Posterior al tratamiento se practicaron nuevamente los exámenes mencionados a manera de control. Los resultados demostraron que la combinación de ácido Kaínico, piperazina y santonina es mejor en el control de la helmintiasis que los fármacos utilizados en forma independiente