Ischemic Preconditioning Protects against Spinal Cord Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Rabbits by Attenuating Blood Spinal Cord Barrier Disruption

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Bo Fang²  Xiao-Man Li¹  Xi-Jia Sun²  Na-Ren Bao²  Xiao-Yan Ren²  Huang-Wei Lv² 

[1] Key Laboratory of Medical Cell Biology, Ministry of Education, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning, China; E-Mail:;Department of Anesthesiology, First Affiliated Hospital, China Medical University, Shenyang 110001, Liaoning, China; E-Mails:

关键词: ischemic preconditioning;    ischemia-reperfusion injury;    spinal cord;    blood spinal cord barrier;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms140510343

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

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© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland