Blocking weight-induced spinal cord injury in rats: effects of TRH or naloxone on motor function recovery and spinal cord blood flow |
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Authors: | A. Holtz,B. Nyströ m,B. Gerdin |
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Affiliation: | Department of Neurosurgery, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. |
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Abstract: | The ability of thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) or naloxone to reduce the motor function deficit and to improve the spinal cord blood flow (SCBF) was investigated in a rat spinal cord compression injury model. Spinal cord injury was induced by compression for 5 min with a load of 35 g on a 2.2 x 5.0 mm sized compression plate causing a transient paraparesis. One group of animals was given TRH, one group naloxone and one group saline alone. Each drug was administered intravenously as a bolus dose of 2 mg/kg 60 min after injury followed by a continuous infusion of 2 mg/kg/h for 4 h. The motor performance was assessed daily on the inclined plane until Day 4, when SCBF was measured with the 14C-iodoantipyrine autoradiographic method. It was found that neither TRH nor naloxone had promoted motor function recovery or affected SCBF 4 days after spinal cord injury. |
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Keywords: | endorphin naloxone motor recovery rats spinal cord injury spinal cord blood flow thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) |
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