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Monitoring of Short‐Term Erythropoietin Therapy in Rats with Acute Spinal Cord Injury Using Manganese‐Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Author(s) -
Freitag Martin Thomas,
Márton Gábor,
Pajer Krisztián,
Hartmann Jens,
Walder Nadja,
Rossmann Markus,
Parzer Peter,
Redl Heinz,
Nógrádi Antal,
Stieltjes Bram
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of neuroimaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1552-6569
pISSN - 1051-2284
DOI - 10.1111/jon.12202
Subject(s) - medicine , magnetic resonance imaging , spinal cord injury , erythropoietin , spinal cord , radiology , psychiatry
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To evaluate the short‐term outcome of erythropoietin (EPO) therapy in rats with spinal cord injury (SCI) using manganese‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI). METHODS Rats were divided in an EPO and a control group. Laminectomy at Th11 was performed, followed by SCI. MnCl 2 was applied into the cisterna magna and functional recovery was examined after injury using BBB‐scoring. Then, rats were euthanized and the spinal cord was extracted for MEMRI. Finally, histological analysis was performed and correlated with MEMRI. RESULTS EPO‐treated animals showed significantly better functional recovery ( P = .008, r = .62) and higher mean signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) in MEMRI compared to controls for slices 10‐13 ( P = .017, R 2 = .31) at the level of the lesion epicenter. Functional recovery correlated significantly with higher SNR values, determined using the mean SNR between slices 10 and 13 ( P = .047, R 2 = .36). In this region, histology revealed a significantly decreased number of microglia cells and apoptosis in EPO‐treated animals. CONCLUSION MEMRI successfully depicts the therapeutic effect of EPO in early SCI that leads to a significant recovery in rats, a significantly reduced immune response and significantly reduced number of apoptotic cells at the height of the lesion epicenter.