Protective effect of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor and NT-4 infused into the tube setted into cavitas subarachnoidealis on spinal front corner motor neurons

Objective To investigate the effect of exogenous glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor(GDNF) and NT-4 infused into the cavitas subarachnoidealis on spinal front corner motor neurons after sciatic nerve axotomy.Method Seventy-two healthy SD rats were divided into 3 groups randomly: GDNF group,NT-4 group,GDNF and NT-4 group.The left sciatic nerve in rats were cut off and spinal cord anterior horn motor neurons were damaged.And then NT-4 and GDNF were injected into cavitas subarachnoidealis at L5-6 in groups,respectively.The rats were sacrificed on postoperative day 1,2,4,8 w respectively.Their specimen of L4-6 spinal cord were taken at different time and sectioned.The HE staining,Nissl staining and cholinesterase(ChE) staining in motor neurons were used for counting of motor neurons.Result In GDNF and NT-4 group the number of motor neurons in spinal front corner and the ChE activity were notable higher than that of other groups,whict had significant difference(P0.05).Conclusion The exogenous GDNF and NT-4 infused into the cavitas subarachnoidealis were supposed to play a more important role in protecting the degenerated spinal motor neuron from death after sciatic nerve injury.