title: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy reduces apoptosis after spinal cord injury in rats.
abstract: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) protects brain tissue from inflammatory injury by suppressing mitochondrial apoptotic pathways. However, its neuroprotective mechanism via anti-apoptosis in spinal cord injury (SCI) is still unclear. In our study, Male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: sham-operated (SH), SCI model, and SCI + HBOT. Rats in each group were randomly divided into four sub-groups in a time-dependent manner (1 day, 3 days, 7 days and 14 days after surgery). Expression of adaptor molecule apoptosis-associated speck-like protein (ASC) and caspase-3 was evaluated at the indicated time after injury. Our data showed that HBOT downregulated expression of ASC in SCI rats at the mRNA and protein levels. HBOT mitigated caspase-3 release in injured spinal cord tissue. We conclude that HBOT prevents inflammation apoptosis after SCI, likely through suppression of ASC and caspase-3.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, Shenzhen People's Hospital Shenzhen 518020, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing 100020, China.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing 100020, China.
authors.forename: Chunjin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing 100020, China.
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Hyperbaric Oxygen, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University Beijing 100020, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
keywords: Hyperbaric oxygen therapy; apoptosis-associated speck-like protein; caspase-3; spinal cord injury