Neural Regeneration Research ›› 2015, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (11): 1819-1824.doi: 10.4103/1673-5374.170311

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Leuprolide acetate induces structural and functional recovery of injured spinal cord in rats.

Carmen Díaz Galindo1, Beatriz Gómez-González2, Eva Salinas3, Denisse Calderón-Vallejo1, Irma Hernández-Jasso1, Eduardo Bautista1,
J Luis Quintanar1, *   

  1. 1 Laboratory of Neurophysiology, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, México
    2 Area of Neuroscience, Department of Reproductive Biology, CBS, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Iztapalapa, México
    3 Laboratory of Immunology, Department of Microbiology, Centro de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, México
  • Received:2015-08-20 Online:2015-12-07 Published:2015-12-07
  • Contact: J Luis Quintanar, Ph.D.,jlquinta@correo.uaa.mx.
  • Supported by:

    This study was supported by a grant from CONACyT for scholarship 376921/246887.

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Abstract:

Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and its synthetic analog leuprolide acetate, a GnRH agonist, have neurotrophic properties. This study was designed to determine whether administration of leuprolide acetate can improve locomotor behavior, gait, micturition reflex, spinal cord morphology and the amount of microglia in the lesion epicenter after spinal cord injury in rats. Rats with spinal cord compression injury were administered leuprolide acetate or saline solution for 5 weeks. At the 5th week, leuprolide acetate-treated rats showed locomotor activity recovery by 38%, had improvement in kinematic gait and exhibited voiding reflex recovery by 60%, as compared with the 1st week. By contrast, saline solution-treated rats showed locomotor activity recovery only by 7%, but voiding reflex did not recover. More importantly, leuprolide acetate treatment reduced microglial immunological reaction and induced a trend towards greater area of white and gray matter in the spinal cord. Therefore, leuprolide acetate has great potential to repair spinal cord injury.

Key words: nerve regeneration, spinal cord injury, leuprolide acetate, gonadotropin-releasing hormone, neurotrophic factor, microglia, micturition reflex, gait, inflammation, neural regeneration