title: Ischemic preconditioning protects against spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion injury in rabbits by attenuating blood spinal cord barrier disruption.
abstract: Ischemic preconditioning has been reported to protect against spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. To investigate this, Japanese white rabbits underwent I-R (30 min aortic occlusion followed by reperfusion), ischemic preconditioning (three cycles of 5 min aortic occlusion plus 5 min reperfusion) followed by I-R, or sham surgery. At 4 and 24 h following reperfusion, neurological function was assessed using Tarlov scores, blood spinal cord barrier permeability was measured by Evan's Blue extravasation, spinal cord edema was evaluated using the wet-dry method, and spinal cord expression of zonula occluden-1 (ZO-1), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) were measured by Western blot and a real-time polymerase chain reaction. ZO-1 was also assessed using immunofluorescence. Spinal cord I-R injury reduced neurologic scores, and ischemic preconditioning treatment ameliorated this effect. Ischemic preconditioning inhibited I-R-induced increases in blood spinal cord barrier permeability and water content, increased ZO-1 mRNA and protein expression, and reduced MMP-9 and TNF-α mRNA and protein expression. These findings suggest that ischemic preconditioning attenuates the increase in blood spinal cord barrier permeability due to spinal cord I-R injury by preservation of tight junction protein ZO-1 and reducing MMP-9 and TNF-α expression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, First Afﬁliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning, China. mahong5466@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Xiao-Man
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xi-Jia
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Na-Ren
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Xiao-Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Huang-Wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002199:Capillary Permeability / Q000502:physiology*; D015870:Gene Expression; D019194:Ischemic Preconditioning / Q000379:methods*; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D011817:Rabbits; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000098:blood supply / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D020760:Spinal Cord Ischemia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D062826:Zonula Occludens-1 Protein / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D062826:Zonula Occludens-1 Protein; D020780:Matrix Metalloproteinase 9