Experimental study of apoptosis in chronic compressive injury of the spinal cord / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective　To explore the phenomenon of neural apoptosis after chronic compressive spinal cord injury. 　Methods　A newly designed chronic progressive compressive spinal cord injury model of rat was adopted in this study. Forty-five Wister rats were divided into mild, moderate, and severe group according to the compressive degree of the spinal cord. The Feulgen stain and TUNEL were used to investigate the apoptosis and its characteristics in different kinds of neural cells. 　 Results　Apoptosis index in moderate injury group was the highest. Apoptotic cells largely located in ventral, lateral and dorsal column of the white matter. Most of them were oligodendrocytes. Positive neuron occasionally presented in laminae Ⅲ～Ⅸ part of the sections. Most of them located in dorsal gray horn. 　Conclusions　 Apoptosis is an important event in secondary pathophysiological process of chronic progressive compressive spinal cord injury. Apoptosis is one of the reasons for neural cell death. The apoptosis of oligodendrocytos may contribute to myelin sheath disruption of white matter.