Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Salvianolic Acid B Ameliorates Motor Dysfuntion in Spinal Cord Injury Rats

Chong Xun, Shouyu Wang, Guang Chen, Yang Hu, Jiaqi Xie, Decheng Lv

Department of Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, 116000, PR China;

For correspondence:- Decheng Lv Email: lvdecheng777@hotmail.com Tel:+86041186724517

Received: 2 February 2013 Accepted: 23 November 2013 Published: 25 January 2014

Citation: Xun C, Wang S, Chen G, Hu Y, Xie J, Lv D. Salvianolic Acid B Ameliorates Motor Dysfuntion in Spinal Cord Injury Rats. Trop J Pharm Res 2014; 13(1):53-59 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v13i1.8

© 2014 The authors.
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Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of salvianolic acid B (Sal B) treatment on the motor function of spinal cord injury (SCI) rat.

Methods: SCI rats were modelled by contusion, and then received 10 mg/kg Sal B, or methylprednisolone, or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) intraperitoneally daily for 4 weeks, two hours after the trauma occurred. During the treatment, footprint analysis (FA), inclined plane test (IPT), Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) rating and Schnell Swim Test (SST) were used for estimating the recovery of motor function. At the same time, tissue edema was measured by wet-dry weighting, and the secretion of cytokines were indirectly quantitated by real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR).

Results: Primarily, Sal B group rats scored higher by FA, IPT and BBB rating. Further statistical analysis of comprehensive SST data from Student-t test indicates that Sal B can significantly ameliorate motor dysfunction after a 4-week treatment (p < 0.05) as well. Furthermore, Sal B decreased water content of the edema by 16.5 % during the first week, and sharply downregulated the transcription of interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) 28- and 16-fold, respectively.

Conclusion: The beneficial effect of motor function recovery was observed in SCI rats following intraperitoneal administration of Sal B.

Keywords: Salvianolic acid B, Spinal cord injury, Motor dysfunction, Cytokines