Neuroprotection of Erythropoietin and Methylprednisolone against Spinal Cord Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury

• Published in: Journal of Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Medical sciences Vol. 31; no. 5; pp. 652 - 656
• Main Author: 熊敏 陈森 余化龙 刘志刚 曾云 李锋
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Huazhong University of Science and Technology 01.10.2011
• Subjects: Activities of daily living; Adult; Aged; Animal models; Decompression, Surgical - adverse effects; Erythropoietin; Erythropoietin - therapeutic use; Female; Humans; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; methylprednisolone; Methylprednisolone - therapeutic use; Middle Aged; Neuroprotection; Neuroprotective Agents - therapeutic use; Reperfusion Injury - prevention & control; Retrospective Studies; Spinal Cord - surgery; Spinal Cord Compression - surgery; Spinal cord injury; Spinal Cord Ischemia - etiology; Therapeutic applications; 临床应用; 促红细胞生成素; 尼龙; 神经保护作用; 神经功能; 缺血再灌注损伤; 脊髓损伤; 蒙特利尔议定书; ischemia-reperfusion injury; methylprednisolone; spinal cord; neuroprotection; erythropoietin
• ISSN: 1672-0733; 1993-1352
• DOI: 10.1007/s11596-011-0576-z

Recent research based on various animal models has shown the neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin （EPO）. However, few studies have examined such effects of EPO in the clinic. In this study we enrolled patients with spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion （I-R） injury to investigate the clinical application of EPO and methylprednisolone （MP） for the neuroprotection against spinal cord I-R injury. Retrospective analysis of 63 cases of spinal cord I-R injury was performed. The Frankel neurological performance scale was used to evaluate the neurological function after spinal cord injury （SCI）, including 12 cases of scale B, 30 cases of scale C, and 21 cases of scale D. These cases were divided into 2 groups： group A （27 cases） got treatment with both EPO and MP; group B （36 cases） got treatment with MP only. The neurological function of patients after treatment was evaluated by American Spinal Cord Injury Association （ASIA） index score, and activity of daily living （ADL） of the patients was also recorded. All patients got follow-up and the follow-up period ranged from 24 to 39 months （mean 26 months）. There was no significance difference in neurological function between groups A and B before the treatment （P〉0.05）. However, the neurological function and ADL scores were significantly improved 1 week, 1 year or 2 years after the treatment compared to those before the treatment （P〈0.05）, and the improvement was more significant in group A than in group B （P〈0.05）. It is suggested that the clinical application of EPO and MP provides the neuroprotection against spinal cord I-R injury.