Water treadmill training attenuates blood-spinal cord barrier disruption in rats by promoting angiogenesis and inhibiting matrix metalloproteinase-2/9 expression following spinal cord injury

作者：Xinwang Ying, Qingfeng Xie, Shengcun Li, Xiaolan Yu, Kecheng Zhou, Jingjing Yue, Xiaolong Chen, Wenzhan Tu, Guanhu Yang, Songhe Jiang · 发表于：Fluids and Barriers of the CNS · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1186/s12987-020-00232-1 · 被引用次数：28 · 研究领域：Barrier Structure and Function Studies、Spinal Cord Injury Research、Angiogenesis and VEGF in Cancer

BACKGROUND: The permeability of the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) is mainly determined by junction complexes between adjacent endothelial cells (ECs), including tight junctions (TJs) and adherens junctions (AJs), which can be severely damaged after spinal cord injury (SCI). Exercise training is a recognized method for the treatment of SCI. The destruction of the BSCB mediated by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) leads to inflammation, neurotoxin production, and neuronal apoptosis. The failure of new blood vessels to effectively regenerate is also an important cause of delayed recovery after SCI. For the first time, we introduced water treadmill training (TT) to help SCI rats successfully exercise and measured the effects of TT in promoting recovery after SCI and the possible mechanisms involved. METHODS: Sprague-Dawley (200-250 g) rats were randomly divided into the following three groups: sham operated, SCI, and SCI + TT. Animals were sacrificed at 7 or 14 days post-surgery. The degree of neurological deficit, tissue morphology and BSCB permeability were assessed by the Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan (BBB) motor function scale and appropriate staining protocols, and apoptosis, protein expression and vascular EC ultrastructure were assessed by TUNEL staining, Western blotting, immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). RESULTS: Our experiments showed that TT reduced permeability of the BSCB and decreased structural tissue damage. TT significantly improved funct...