Dynamics of pathomorphological changes in rat ischemic spinal cord after treatment with recombinant erythropoietin: Experimental study

Abstract

Introduction. There is ample current research on new methods of treatment for spinal cord infarction. In this respect, in recent years recombinant erythropoietin (REP) has been gaining increasing interest among medical professionals; REP is a drug with proven protective activity in response to ischemia of different organs and tissues including the brain and the spinal cord. We aim to study the dynamics of morphological changes in spinal cord ischemic lesion in rats influenced by REP. Materials and methods. The study was conducted on 40 mature rats. The animals were divided into two series of experiment 20 animals each. The first series of animals was the group of comparison with spinal cord ischemia model. In the second series the animals were administered intraperitoneally 1000 international units (0.0084 mg) of REP in 3, 24, and 48 hours. After the animals had been sacrificed, the spinal cord was removed for further histologic and morphometric study. The obtained results were processed using analysis of variance. The statistical significance of differences between compared parameters of the groups was assessed with the Mann-Whitney U test. Results. The study of the spinal cord specimen showed that REP administration results in significantly higher levels of normal neurons and blood vessels, and in significantly lower count of chromatolytic neurons and ghost cells at all stages of experiment. Conclusion. At the early stages of experiment, REP effect increases ischemic tolerance of neurons and enhances the proliferation rate of gliocytes and endotheliocytes with development of a new blood stream.