Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of salvianolic acid B (Sal B) treatment on the motor function of spinal cord injury (SCI) rat.Methods: SCI rats were modelled by contusion, and then received 10 mg/kg Sal B, or methylprednisolone, or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) intraperitoneally daily for 4 weeks, two hours after the trauma occurred. During the treatment, footprint analysis (FA), inclined plane test (IPT), Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) rating and Schnell Swim Test (SST) were used for estimating the recovery of motor function. At the same time, tissue edema was measured by wet-dry weighting, and the secretion of cytokines were indirectly quantitated by real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).Results: Primarily, Sal B group rats scored higher by FA, IPT and BBB rating. Further statistical analysis of comprehensive SST data from Student-t test indicates that Sal B can significantly ameliorate motor dysfunction after a 4-week treatment (p < 0.05) as well. Furthermore, Sal B decreased water content of the edema by 16.5 % during the first week, and sharply downregulated the transcription of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) 28- and 16-fold, respectively.Conclusion: The beneficial effect of motor function recovery was observed in SCI rats following intraperitoneal administration of Sal B.Keywords: Salvianolic acid B, Spinal cord injury, Motor dysfunction, Cytokines
Highlights
spinal cord injury (SCI) refers to injuries occurred to the spinal cord, it may be caused by primary injury due to trauma, and secondary injury due to the cascade of cellular and molecular events that after trauma [1,2]
Water content of edema tissue decreased after salvianolic acid B (Sal B) therapy
Water content in the spinal cord significantly decreased after 3 days in the model group treated with 10mg/kg Sal B (Table 2; P
Summary
SCI refers to injuries occurred to the spinal cord, it may be caused by primary injury due to trauma, and secondary injury due to the cascade of cellular and molecular events that after trauma [1,2]. The antioxidant Sal B has been shown to improve functional recovery in braininjured rats and provide neuroprotective effects in some experimental models of cerebral ischemia [6,7]. Deng et al reported that Sal B improved motor function are partially due to inhibition of increased TNF-α in the damaged spinal cord and exhibits neuroprotective effects [8,9]. With the contusion animal models, a series of tests were used for evaluating the capacity of Sal B treatment on SCI rats. By multiple-factor comparison, we confirmed the effectiveness of the Sal B treatment and shown how much extent it can be improved critically in terms of the motor function. Except for direct damage to the spinal cord from trauma, the secondary injuries are important for SCI treatment. The wet and dry weight method was used to evaluate the extent of tissue edema [11]
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