The Experimental Research Of Apelin In Rat Spinal Cord Following Sciatic Nerve Ligation

Objective:To study the temporal—spacial pattern of expression of apelin in spinal cord and provide experimental evidence of its possible function mechanism as to regenerationMethods:SD rats were randomly divided into control group and the sciatic nerve ligation group, samples were obtained in the experimental group at 1,3,7,14 or 21d postoperatively, HE staining,immunohisto-chemistry and image analysis were carried out for apelin expression in the spinal cord.Results:In the normal control group, there is expression of apelin in the spinal cord gray matter and white matter, which were explained by a large number of brownish yellow stained apelin positive cells in the spinal cords, mainly in the cytoplasm. And brown staining was also found in nerve fibers in the white matter, however there appears no obvious apelin expression glial cells and stromal cells.Compared with the control group, the apelin expression in sciatic nerve ligation group at all time points increased, reaching to peak at 3d, gradually decreasing after 7d, still with higher expression, Apelin expression mainly located in gray matter and white matter of spinal cord in sciatic nerve ligation group, especially in nerve fiber, no significant expression was found in neuronal cell at different time points after ligation. and the expression of posterior angle was higher than the anterior angle. As a result, there is signicant difference among the various time points group and between the experiment group and the control group (P<0.05)Conclusion:1.It is possible that ligation of sciatic nerve may affect the expression of apelin in spinal cord2.There is a transient peak of expression of apelin in spinal cord after sciatic nerve ligation...