Protective effect of combining propofol pretreatment and posttreatment on ischemic spinal cord injury in rabbit

Objective To study the effect of combined application of propofol preconditioning and postconditioning on spinal cord injury induced by ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) in a rabbit model.Methods The rabbits were randomly assigned to one of the 3 groups(8 rabbits per group):Group I,sham-operation group; Group Ⅱ,ischemic-reperfusion group; Group Ⅲ,ischemic-reperfusion group with propofol treatment.Spinal cord ischemia was induced by infra-renal aortic cross-clamp for 40 minutes in Group Ⅱ and Group Ⅲ,and propofol was intravenously infused at 30 mg/kg in 30 ml 0.9% sodium chloride at the speed of 3 ml/min to animals in Group Ⅲ,once at 10 minutes before aortic clamping and once at the onset of reperfusion.Results Compared with the results in Group Ⅰ,Group Ⅱ showed significant I/R injury-induced changes in the neurological function scores and histopathology (P0.01).However,Group Ⅲ with propofol treatment significantly reversed these changes in all these parameters (P0.01).Meanwhile,I/R-induced increase in the malondialdehyde (MDA)content observed in Group Ⅱ were also significantly reduced in Group Ⅲ with propofol treatment (P0.01),and I/R-induced decreased in the superoxide dismutase (SOD)activities were also significantly prevented in propofol-treated Group Ⅲ (P0.01).With propofol treatment,all parameters examined in Group Ⅲ were not significant different to those obtained in the sham-operation group.Conclusions Combined application of propofol preconditioning and postconditioning show potently protective effects against spinal cord I/R injury in the rabbit model,and also protect loss of antioxidant activities of the spinal cord tissues.