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Nitric oxide: a possible etiologic factor in spinal cord cavitation.
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1998
Year
Spinal Cord InjuryHealth SciencesNeurophysiologyNitric OxideMedicinePhysiologySpinal BiomechanicsSpinal TraumaSpinal InjuryNeurologyNeuroscienceCentral Nervous SystemNeuroprotectionSpinal Cord CavitiesNeuroimmunologySpinal DisorderCellular PhysiologyNeuroinflammation
To determine whether nitric oxide (NO) is related to spinal cord cavitation, we treated mice that underwent spinal cord injury with NG-mono-methyl-L-arginine (N-MMA). Spinal cord specimens were subjected to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunostaining, which is selective for astrocytes. Spinal cord cavities and GFAP-positive glial cells appeared simultaneously at 3 days after spinal cord injury, and the cavities enlarged at 7 days. In mice receiving N-MMA, the cavities were significantly smaller than those in the mice that underwent spinal cord injury only. However, the numbers of GFAP-positive cells showed no difference between these two groups. These experimental findings suggest that cavitation of the spinal cord is caused mainly by NO released from activated glial cells.