Sodium escine inhibiting cell apoptosis following tractive spinal cord injury in rats

Objective To observe the inhibitive effect of sodium escine(SE) on neural cell apoptosis after tractive spinal cord injury(SCI) in rats.Methods SE at 6 mg/kg was injected intravenously before SCI in the experimental group.The spinal cord at T10 level was pull horizontally for 1.7 mm,with duration of five minutes,to detect the expressions of neural cells bcl-2 and bax.The cell apoptosis was observed via in situ terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase-medicated dUTP labeling technique. Results(1) At day 7,expression of Bcl-2 reached(43.61±5.89)%(at peak) in the experimental group but(26.85±4.61)% in the control group,with statistical difference(P0.01).(2) At day 3,expression of bax reached(36.19±5.42)%(at peak) in the experimental group but(44.15±6.81)% in the control group,with statistical difference(P0.01).(3) At each time point,the apoptosis index in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group.Conclusions Use of SE before SCI can effectively inhibit neural cell apoptosis resulted from tractive SCI.