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Functional and Structural Recovery of the Injured Spinal Cord in Rats Treated with Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone

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Abstract

Several studies have shown that gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) have extra-pituitary roles, including neurotrophic effects. This study was to evaluate the effects of GnRH treatment on the spinal cord injury (SCI) of rats. Ovariectomized rats were divided into: sham SCI surgery (Sham), SCI treated with saline solution (SCI + SS), and SCI treated with GnRH (SCI + GnRH). The SCI was induced by compression. One day after the lesion, SCI + GnRH group was injected with GnRH (60 µg/kg/twice/day; i.m.) for 15 days and the other groups with saline solution. To kinematic gait analysis, length and velocity of the stride were measured. In spinal cord, axonal morphometry and spared white and gray matter were analyzed by histochemistry. Protein expression of spinophilin was evaluated by western blot. The results showed that, 5 weeks after the injury, the group of animals treated with GnRH, significantly increased the length and velocity of the stride compared to SCI + SS group and they were similar to Sham group. In spinal cord, GnRH treatment increased the number and caliber of nerve axons and in the case of white matter, spared tissue was significantly higher than those animals treated with saline solution. The expression of spinophilin in spinal cord of SCI + GnRH group was slightly increased with respect to those not treated. In conclusion, GnRH treatment improves recovery of gait and decreases histopathological damage in the injured spinal cord of rat. These findings suggest that GnRH acts as a neurotrophic factor and can be used as a potential therapeutic agent for treatment of SCI.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Kalman Kovacs for reviewing the manuscript and Dra. Yolanda Romo Lozano, Dra. Mariela Jiménez Vargas, Dra. Eva Salinas Miralles and Manuel Tinajero for the methodological support. We thank Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONACyT) for scholarship 19919.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Depto. de Fisiología y Farmacología, Centro de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Av. Universidad 940, Col. Ciudad Universitaria, C.P. 20131, Aguascalientes, AGS, Mexico

    Denisse Calderón-Vallejo, Irma Hernández-Jasso, Violeta Jiménez-Hernández, Jannet Ruiz-Ornelas & J. Luis Quintanar

  2. Laboratory of Neuroimmunoendocrinology, Depto. de Fisiología y Farmacología, Centro de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, Mexico

    Andrés Quintanar-Stephano

  3. Department of Physiology, Biophysics and Neurosciences, Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados (CINVESTAV), Ciudad de México, Mexico

    Ismael Jiménez

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  1. Denisse Calderón-Vallejo
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Correspondence to J. Luis Quintanar.

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Calderón-Vallejo, D., Quintanar-Stephano, A., Hernández-Jasso, I. et al. Functional and Structural Recovery of the Injured Spinal Cord in Rats Treated with Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone. Neurochem Res 40, 455–462 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-014-1486-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-014-1486-9

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