Improved spinal cord gray matter morphology induced by Spirulina platensis following spinal cord injury in rat models

ABSTRACT

Despite intense preclinical research focusing on developing potential strategies of mitigating spinal cord injury (SCI), SCI still results in permanent, debilitating symptoms for which there are currently no effective pharmacological interventions to improve the recovery of the fine ultrastructure of the spinal cord. Spirulina platensis is thought to have potential neuroprotective effects. We have previously demonstrated its protective potential on the lesioned corticospinal tracts and behavioral recovery. In this study, spirulina, known for its neuroprotective properties was used to further explore its protective effects on spinal cord gray matter ultrastructural. Twenty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were used and divided into sham group (laminectomy without SCI), control group (SCI without S. platensis), and S. platensis group (SCI + 180 mg/kg S. platensis). All animals were anesthetized via intramuscular injection. A partial crush injury was induced at the level of T12. The rats were humanely sacrificed for 28 days postinjury for ultrastructural study. There were significant mean differences with respect to pairwise comparisons between the ultrastructural grading score of neuronal perikarya of control and the S. platensis following injury at day 28, which correlates with the functional locomotor recovery at this timepoint in our previous study. The group supplemented with spirulina, thus, revealed a better improvement in the fine ultrastructure of the spinal cord gray matter when compared to the control group thereby suggesting neuroprotective potentials of spirulina in mitigating the effects of spinal cord injury and inducing functional recovery.

KEYWORDS:

• Spinal cord injury
• spirulina platensis
• ultrastructure
• spinal cord gray matter
• BBB Score

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the University of Malaya postgraduate research grant (PG 181-2015B) and the authors are grateful to Medical Laboratory Technologists and Assistant Scientific Officers of the Department of Anatomy and Electron Microscopic Unit of the University of Malaya for their technical support which are prerequisite to the successful accomplishment of the study.

Author contributions

Dauda Abdullahi: performed the experiment, data analysis, writing the manuscript. Azlina Ahmad Annuar: study design, supervised the project, writing the manuscript, and technical support. Junedah Sanusi: study design, supervised the project, writing the manuscript, and financial support.

Competing interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

This work was supported by the Institut Pengurusan dan Pemantauan Penyelidikan, Universiti Malaya[PG 181-2015B].

Data availability statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are included within the article. Data from our previous study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31779507) supports the observations in this present study. Other studies used to support this study have been cited at relevant places within the text as references.