Basic research on spinal cord perfusion on acute spinal cord injury

本研究的目的是利用脊髓诱发电位（SCEP）评价脊髓损伤后的脊髓功能，并分析人工脑脊液（aCSF）灌注对脊髓损伤后的影响。用氟烷和磺胺氯铵麻醉和固定10只成年Wister大鼠。该动物在胸椎中段行椎板切除术，并固定在立体定位框架中。通过椎板切除术插入导管电极进行SCEP记录。微致动器低速压迫脊髓，直至SCEP振幅略低于初始振幅的10%。5只动物行硬膜切开，脊髓灌注常温充氧aCSF 4小时。其余5只动物作为未治疗的对照组。损伤后4小时，灌注动物的SCEP振幅平均恢复43.6%。相比之下，此时在对照动物中几乎没有发现潜在的。两组差异有统计学意义，提示急性脊髓损伤后局部灌注可能是早期抑制继发性神经元损伤的一种有效的功能恢复治疗方法。需要更长的观察时间和更大的动物进行进一步的研究。

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the spinal cord function using spinal cord evoked potential (SCEP) and to analyze the effect of perfusion with artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) after the spinal cord injury.Ten adult Wister rats were anesthetized and immobilized with halothane and suxamethonium chloride. The animal had a laminectomy at mid thoracic level and was fixed in a stereotaxic frame. Catheter electrodes were inserted through the laminectomy for SCEP recording. Spinal cord was injured by low velocity compression with microactuator until SCEP amplitude became just below 10% of the initial amplitude. In 5 animals, durotomy and spinal cord perfusion with normothermic oxygenated aCSF was performed for 4 hours. The other 5 animals were remained as non-treated controls.4 hours after the injury, perfused animals showed the recovery of SCEP amplitude to 43.6% in average. In contrast, almost no potential was identified at this time in the control animals. The difference of the two groups was statistically significant, and this suggests that the local perfusion after acute spinal cord injury is a useful treatment for the functional recovery probably due to the suppression of secondary neuronal damage in early stage. Further study with longer observation and larger animals will be required.