Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Pre-conditioning on Mitochondrial Pathway of Apoptosis in Neurons of Spinal Cord Injured Rats

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe trauma to the central nervous system (CNS) and cause high disability and high mortality. Thus, SCI has been a disease threatening the human health and increases the social and family burden. The recovery of the neuron functions after SCI is very difficult, and thus to avoid the secondary neurological injury has been an important focus in the treatment of SCI patients. Several studies have shown that hyperbaric oxygen pre-conditioning (HBO-PC) can attenuate the secondary injury after SCI, protect the residual axons and neurons, and promote the regeneration of neurons and the recovery of neurofunctions, which are ascribed to the reduction of neuronal apoptosis at the spinal cord following ischemia/hypoxia . The apoptosis of neurons in the spinal cord is associated with several signaling pathways in which mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis plays an important role. On the basis of available findings on SCI, this study was undertaken to investigate the effect of HBO-PC on the motor function of SCI rats with BBB score. In addition, following HBO-PC, factors related to the mitochondrial pathway of apoptosis were detected in the spinal cord (such as cytochrome c [CYC], Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer [Bak], B cell lymphoma / lewkmia-2 associated protein x [Bax], Bcl-2-like 1 [Bcl-x], B cell lymphoma / lewkmia-2 Acta Medica Mediterranea, 2015, 31: 573