title: Morphological characterization of the evolving rat spinal cord injury after photochemically induced ischemia.
abstract: We have characterized the evolving morphological changes in the adult rat spinal cord following photochemically induced spinal cord ischemia. In cresyl violet-stained sections, disintegration of the tissue at the epicenter was evident at 6 h. This was preceded at 1 h post ischemia by an albumin immunoreactivity. The albumin immunoreactivity was increased at 6 and even more so at 24 h post ischemia. At 72 h post ischemia the albumin immunoreactivity was decreased. The size of the lesion was established by 3 days after the onset of ischemia. During the 1st week post ischemia, neurofilament (NF) immunohistochemistry showed swollen axons adjacent to the injured tissue. From 2 weeks post ischemia an increasing number of regrowing NF-immunoreactive axons could be seen in the center of the necrotic cavity. At 3 weeks after ischemia, a developing gliosis was observed around and rostral to the lesion cavity, as evidenced by increased glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity. The gliosis became more pronounced until 6 weeks post ischemia, at which time enlarged GFAP-immunoreactive cells could be seen in the remaining viable tissue bordering the necrotic areas. In this study we show that several traits in the development of a spinal cord lesion after photochemically induced ischemia are similar to those described previously after traumatic spinal cord lesions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Family Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: von Euler
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sundström
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Seiger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D048588:Benzoxazines; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004396:Coloring Agents; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005260:Female; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007511:Ischemia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D010078:Oxazines; D010777:Photochemistry; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012039:Regional Blood Flow / Q000502:physiology; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000378:metabolism; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D048588:Benzoxazines; D004396:Coloring Agents; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins; D010078:Oxazines; C028911:cresyl violet