Original Article

EFFECTS OF AMINOGUANIDINE AND METHYLPREDNISOLONE ON SPINAL CORD INJURY: EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

  • Halil İbrahim SEÇER
  • Tufan CANSEVER
  • Özkan TEHLİ
  • Serdar KAHRAMAN

Received Date: 26.07.2014 Accepted Date: 11.09.2014 J Turk Spinal Surg 2014;25(4):251-258

Study Design:

The effects of methylprednisolone (MP) and aminoguanidine (AG) on an experimental spinal cord injury with a weight-drop technique were examined in rats, assessing the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), antioxidant enzyme activity, and morphological changes in the spinal cord.

Objective:

To create a spinal trauma model with a weight-drop technique in rats and to investigate the biochemical and histopathological changes to the spinal cord.

Summary of Background Data:

Unfortunately, primary spinal cord injuries cannot be prevented, but the secondary injury that begins immediately after trauma can be treated medically. The effect of AG was investigated and compared with MP.

Methods:

35 Sprague-Dawley rats were used in this study. A spinal cord injury model was created in all rats with a weight-drop technique, and the malondialdehyde (MDA) and antioxidant enzyme activities were measured. The histopathological changes in the spinal cord were examined.

Results:

MP decreased the GPX, MDA and CAT levels, and no difference was found with a combination of AG and MP in this study. The effect of AG was to decrease the levels of GPX, SOD and MDA, and to increase the CAT levels. The effect of MP was to decrease the GPX, MDA and CAT levels, and to increase the SOD levels. No significant differences were found between the effects of MP and AG by histopathological examination.

Conclusions:

The levels of MDA or antioxidant enzyme activity can be helpful when testing the neuroprotective effects of any molecule in secondary injury mechanism. Molecules can show their effects by the different levels of these enzyme activities. We conclude that morphological and neurological examination would be safer to test the effects of antioxidant molecules.

Keywords: Spinal cord, spinal cord injury, medical treatment, aminoguanidine, methylprednisolone