Which type of conditioning method protects the spinal cord from the ischemia-reperfusion injury in 24 hours?

OBJECTIVE: This study was designed to test the effects of different types of preconditioning and postconditioning methods on spinal cord protection following aortic clamping.

METHODS: The animals (rabbits) were divided into sham-operated, ischemic preconditioning, remote ischemic preconditioning, simultaneous aortic and ischemic remote preconditioning, and ischemic postconditioning groups. After neurological evaluations, ultrastructural analysis and immunohistochemical staining for caspase-3 were evaluated after 24 h following ischemia.

RESULTS: The neurological outcomes of the remote ischemic preconditioning (4.2 ± 0.4) and ischemic postconditioning (4.6 ± 0.8) groups were significantly improved when compared with the ischemia group (2.2 ± 04). The immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the lowest percentage of apoptosis was in-group ischemic preconditioning at 12.5 ± 30.6%. In the comparison of intracellular edema in an ultrastructural analysis, the ischemic preconditioning and ischemic postconditioning groups had significantly lower values than the ischemia group.

CONCLUSION: The conditioning methods attenuate ischemia-reperfusion injury for spinal cord injury. Ischemic and remote preconditioning and also postconditioning methods are simple to perform and inexpensive.