| OBJECTIVE This study was to investigate the expression of the neurotrophic factors (NGF,BDNF,NT-3) in spinal tissues of rats with acute spinal cord injury after Teramethylpyrazine (TMP) treatment.METHODS A total of 55 healthy adult Sprague Dawley rats weighting 200g up to 250g were divided randomly into three groups without discriminating of gender: (1) Normal group (group N, n=5); (2) Pseudo-Therapy normal group (group P, n=25); (3) Tramethylpyrazine group (group T, n=25).The acute spinal cord injury models at T10 section were made according to Allen's weight drop method .200mg/kg of TMP was used to the T group intraperitoneally and the P group were treated with the same volume of saline vehicle (NS) 30 minutes after injury. Each model was given the same dosage once a day until sacrifice or lasted for 5 days following the injury if the rats survived for more than 5 days. At the time points of 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days and 21 days following the injury, the rats of two groups which related to the time point were killed to collect the spinal cord tissue samples from the injured segment with the length of lcm. Each sample got 3 continuous histological sections of 10um thickness through microtomy in the middle of the sample. Three section was prepared to test the NGF,BDNF and NT-3 by immunohistochemistry method separately .The number of NTFs in every, section was counted, and the average positive NTFs cells of each group at the same time point were calculated. Software SPSS10.0 was applied to analysis if there was significant difference between the two related groups at each time point. Animal behavioral scores—modified Rivilin loxotic plate and BBB score on spinal cord functional deficits were performed to the rats sacrificed at the 7th, 14th and 21th day following SCI, and the BBB scores added another score at the 3th day following SCI,and analysis the difference between the two groups.RESULTS Rats treated with TMP had better.outcomes in modified Rivlin loxotic plate test compared with rats of pseudo-therapy groups at 14,21d after SCI respectively (p＜0.05).TMP group had significantly higher scores in BBB test than P group at 7,14,21days after SCI respectively(p＜0.05).The number of NGF, BDNF and NT-3 positive cells were significantly higher in TMP group than P group at 3,7,14d after SCI(p＜0.05), and at 21d after SCI TMP group's positive NGF cells were higher than those in P group's (p＞0.05), but there were no significant variance between TMP group and P group of BDNF and NT-3 factors (p＞0.05).CONCULUSION The TMP can increase the expressions of the NGF, BDNF, NT-3 of the SD rats after SCI. It has neuroprotective effects on the second injury mechanism of the SCI.
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