| Objective: To study the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) on secondary inflammatory response and neuron apoptosis following acute spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats.Method:Therats were randomly divided into sham group,DMSO-treated group, methylprednisolone-treated group, and DHEA-treated group. On the basis of SCI of Allen's weight drop model, IL-1βand caspase-3 were detected by means of ELISA and pathomorphologic changes of injured spinal and neuron apoptosis after SCI were demonstrated by TUNEL method. Result:The expression levels of IL-1βand caspase-3 in the DMSO-treated group reached a peak of 479.4±25.8 and 1562.3±166.8 at 6h, 24h after SCI, which is significantly different from 178.5±9.3 and 870.8±61.4in DHEA-treated group (P <0.05 , respectively). There is no statistical difference between those in MP-treated and DHEA-treated at 2h, 6h, 24h or 72h in the expression levels of IL-1βand caspase-3. Neuron apoptosis was significantly improved and the expression of IL-1βand caspase-3 decreased (p<0.05, respectively) in DHEA-treated group. According to the dynamic observation at 2h through 3d post-SCI, Neuronal apoptosis is the most serious at 24h. Numbers of Neuronal apoptosis in MP-treated group is less than those in Control group, which were 25.3±4.6 and 35.3±6.6,There's statistical difference between these two groups (P <0.05)Conclusion: DHEAreducessecondary injury after SCI in rats by inhibiting the excessive inflammatory cytokine expression and neuronal apoptosis. |
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