Protective effects of erythropoietin by epidural injection on neurocyte apoptosis and relative proteins after spinal cord injury in rats / 中国矫形外科杂志

ABSTRACT

[Objective]To investigate the protective effects of rhEPO on neuromotor function and apoptosis of neural cell,after it was peritoneally injected at different time in rats with traumatic spinal cord injury(SCI).[Method]A total of 48 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighting 270 ?10 g were randomly divided into four groups.Rats in normal group(n=6)and sham group(n=6)underwent laminectomy producure only.In control group,rats(n=18)received normal saline epidurally at 1,6 and 24 hours after injury.Treatment group(n=18)received 5000 iu/kg body weight of recombinant humane erythropoietin administered epidurally at 1,6 and 24 hours after injury.SCI was induced with 70g/cm impact according to the improved Allen method.Behavioral evaluation of the rats was made 48 hours after trauma using the Basso,Beattie,and Bresnahan(BBB)scoring system and Rivlin's tiltboard experiment.Injured spinal cord tissue cell apoptosis was examined by the terminal deoxynucleotidal transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end abeling(TUNEL)reaction at 48 hour.Fasl and Caspase-3 expression was determined by immunohistochemical analysis at 48 hours after injury.The results were observed by light microscope and analyzed by SPSS statistics software.[Result]Compared to the control group,neuromotor function was significantly improved at 1,6,and 24 hours after injury in the experiment group.The indexes of neural cell decreased significantly(P