Angiopoietin-1 Reduces Blood-Spinal Cord Barrier Permeability and Lesion Volume in the Acute Phase of Spinal Cord Injury: MRI and Histological Studies

Introduction Following mechanical trauma to spinal cord, a series of pathobiological events ensue leading to the so-called “secondary injury”. Blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) breakdown is an important secondary effect following mechanical trauma to the spinal cord. Traditionally, the BSCB permeability has been assessed ex vivo, using histological techniques [1]. However, noninvasive in vivo techniques for evaluating the BSCB permeability, such as dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI), are highly desirable [2,3]. Angiopoietin-1 (Ang1) is a protein that has been shown to reduce vascular permeability and stabilize blood vessels [4,5]. The effect of acute administration of Ang1 on BSCB permeability and lesion volume in spinal cord injury (SCI) was quantitatively evaluated using DCEMRI and high resolution anatomical MRI, respectively. In addition, immunofluorescence histology was performed to validate DCE-MRI results.