Paraplegia is a disastrous complication after operations of descending and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. Re- gional hypothermia protects against spinal cord ischemia although the protective mechanism is not well k...Paraplegia is a disastrous complication after operations of descending and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. Re- gional hypothermia protects against spinal cord ischemia although the protective mechanism is not well know. The objective of this study is to examine whether hypothermia protects the spinal cord by preventing apoptosis of nerve cell and also investigate a possible mechanism involved in hypothermia neuroprotection. Cell apoptosis with necrosis was evident in the spinal cord 24 h after 30 min of ischemia. Moderate hypothermia decreased the incidence of apoptotic nerve cells. Both cell apoptosis and necrosis were attenuated by hypothermia. p53 expression increased and bcl-2 expression declined after ischemia, while hypothermia mitigated these changes. This study suggests that apoptosis contributes to cell death after spinal cord ischemia, and that moderate hypothermia can prevent nerve cell apoptosis by a mechanism associated with bcl-2 and p53 genes.展开更多
基金This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China(90208011,30300174,30470856 and 30421005)National Basic Research Program(973 Program)(2002CB713802)Shanghai Key Project of Ba-sic Science Research(04DZ14005 and 04DZ05608).
文摘Paraplegia is a disastrous complication after operations of descending and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. Re- gional hypothermia protects against spinal cord ischemia although the protective mechanism is not well know. The objective of this study is to examine whether hypothermia protects the spinal cord by preventing apoptosis of nerve cell and also investigate a possible mechanism involved in hypothermia neuroprotection. Cell apoptosis with necrosis was evident in the spinal cord 24 h after 30 min of ischemia. Moderate hypothermia decreased the incidence of apoptotic nerve cells. Both cell apoptosis and necrosis were attenuated by hypothermia. p53 expression increased and bcl-2 expression declined after ischemia, while hypothermia mitigated these changes. This study suggests that apoptosis contributes to cell death after spinal cord ischemia, and that moderate hypothermia can prevent nerve cell apoptosis by a mechanism associated with bcl-2 and p53 genes.
