Protective effect of extract of Ginkgo biloba on blood-spinal cord barrier after acute spinal cord injury in rat model

[Objective]To observe whether the extract of Ginkgo biloba(EGb761) has protective effect on inflammatory reaction and blood-spinal cord barrier after spinal cord injury in rat model and to study its mechanism.[Method]Totally 120 SD female rats were randomly divided into three groups,group A(sham-operated group),group B(Allen impact SCI group) and group C(EGb761 treated group).Each group had 40 rats for test.Rats in group A underwent laminectomy alone.The modified Allen method was adopted at the T9 level in groups B and C to induce the acute spinal cord injury.For group C,EGb761 was delivered 100 mg/kg/d intraperitoneally half an hour after injury for the first time and per day until killed.At the same time,vehicle-treated animals received physiological saline in the same volumes as in the EGb761-treated group.The rats were sacrificed at 3,6,24 and 72 h post-injury and T9 spinal cord specimen was estracted.The blood-spinal cord barrier(BSCB) of cords was determined by Evans blue content detection,interleukin-1β(IL-1β) expression was detected by ELISA method and intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1(ICAM-1) protein in spinal cord were detected by immunohistochemistry assay.[Result]In group A,there was no obvious leakage of Evans blue around the injuried site and the concentrations of IL-1β and ICAM-1 were maintained at a low level.Compared to group A,the leakage of Evans blue and the concentrations of IL-1β and ICAM-1 were significantly higher.After application of EGb761,the leakage of Evans blue were decreased significantly at all time points except 3 hours post-injury when compared to group B.Additionally,the concentrations of IL-1β and ICAM-1 were decreased significantly at each time point.[Conclusion]In Allen's acute SCI rat model,EGb761 could decrease the local concentration of IL-1β,suppress the abnormal expression of ICAM-1 protein and attenuate disruption of BSCB permeability.