Which type of conditioning method protects the spinal cord from the ischemia-reperfusion injury in 24 hours?

This study was designed to test the effects of different types of preconditioning and postconditioning methods on spinal cord protection following aortic clamping.

The animals (rabbits) were divided into sham-operated, ischemic preconditioning, remote ischemic preconditioning, simultaneous aortic and ischemic remote preconditioning, and ischemic postconditioning groups. After neurological evaluations, ultrastructural analysis and immunohistochemical staining for caspase-3 were evaluated after 24 h following ischemia.

The neurological outcomes of the remote ischemic preconditioning (4.2 ± 0.4) and ischemic postconditioning (4.6 ± 0.8) groups were significantly improved when compared with the ischemia group (2.2 ± 04). The immunohistochemical analysis revealed that the lowest percentage of apoptosis was in-group ischemic preconditioning at 12.5 ± 30.6%. In the comparison of intracellular edema in an ultrastructural analysis, the ischemic preconditioning and ischemic postconditioning groups had significantly lower values than the ischemia group.

The conditioning methods attenuate ischemia-reperfusion injury for spinal cord injury. Ischemic and remote preconditioning and also postconditioning methods are simple to perform and inexpensive.