Localization and quantitation of inducible nitric oxide synthase in rat spinal cord injury

Objective To study the distribution and expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase(iNOS) in spinal cord injury.Methods The spinal cords of SD rats were compressed by the formal methods.6,12,24,48 and 96 hours after the injury,immunohistochemical and image analysis methods were used to study the the distribution and expression of inducible nitric oxide synthases in spinal cord tissues.The spinal cord tissues of normal rats were used as controls.Results The immunohistochemically positive areas were located in brown-stained part of cytoplasm in cells of anterior horn , central canal and posterior horn . iNOS were expressed in all injured groups but not in normal control group.There were significant differences between 12-48 hours after-injury groups and the normal control group(P0.05).Conclusion There are expressions of iNOS in spinal cord tissues of rats with spinal cord injury. This fact would be useful for studying the roles of nitric oxide in spinal cord injury.