The Protective Effect of Spinal Cord Stimulation Postconditioning Against Spinal Cord Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in Rabbits

The Neuroprotective Mechanism of Spinal Cord Stimulation in Spinal Cord Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

“…A previous study by Kakinohana and colleagues (4) suggested that epidural electrical stimulation preconditioning could significantly prolong spinal cord ischemic tolerance time of rats. The preliminary result of our study (5) further confirmed the neuroprotective effects of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) against spinal cord I/R injury as SCS postconditioning significantly preserved the hind limb neurologic function and spinal cord motor neuron numbers of rabbits and reduced apoptosis of spinal cord motor neurons. However, the mechanism is not known.…”

“…Study by Liu et al (20) suggested the mechanism of xenon postconditioning against spinal cord I/R injury was partially induced by upregulation of Akt phosphorylation. The preliminary result of our study (5) suggested that SCS postconditioning, especially 2 Hz SCS postconditioning (when comparing with 50 Hz SCS postconditioning), effectively protected spinal cord from I/R injury on rabbits, which demonstrated as 2 Hz SCS preserved rabbits' hind limb neurological function and spinal cord motor neuron numbers and decreased the apoptosis rate of motor neurons. In order to elucidate the mechanism involved in the neuroprotective effects of SCS, in the current study, we measured the expression of Akt and p‐Akt of spinal cord and found that the Akt expression of spinal cord was not significantly different among I/R, I/R + 2 Hz SCS, I/R + 50 Hz SCS group at 8 h, 1 day, 3 day, and 7 day of reperfusion, however the p‐Akt expressions were increased after ischemia, with the p‐Akt expressions of I/R + 2 Hz SCS group significantly higher than that of the I/R group at all prescribed time points, which suggests that 2 Hz SCS postconditioning promotes Akt activation and the PI3K/Akt pathway is involved in the neuroprotective effects of 2 Hz SCS.…”

“…As had been reported (5) that rabbits were randomly assigned to sham, I/R, I/R + 2 Hz SCS, I/R + 50 Hz SCS group, n = 24/group (Fig. 1).…”

Treatment of central pain syndrome with spinal cord stimulation

“…Как показывают последние исследования, эффект, оказываемый нейростимуляцией, комплексный и включает в себя влияние на локальный кровоток, нейротрансмиссию, выброс эндорфинов, концентрацию биологически активных веществ, нейромедиаторов. Кроме того, нейростимуляция блокирует мембранную деполяризацию, стимулирует ангиогенез, подавляет симпатическую иннервацию и оказывает нейропротективный эффект [10]. Точный механизм нейромодуляции только предстоит раскрыть, что объяснит многовекторность воздействия этой методики.…”

Commentary: NO matter what you call it, “conditioning” the spinal cord preventing paraplegia is worthwhile

“…This same group of authors previously reported that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) postconditioning at both 2 Hz and 50 Hz offers neuroprotective effects; however, these effects were more pronounced in the 2-Hz group. 3 Li and coworkers 2 sought to evaluate the outcomes in terms of hind limb neurologic functions, the number of amotor neurons, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase deoxyuridine-5ʹ-triphosphate nick end labeling-positive neuron rates and ratios of the microglia area to the anterior horn area (microglia area ratios). The rabbits of the 2-Hz group fared significantly better than the control group in all end points.…”