APOPTOSIS AS A MECHANISM OF NEURONAL CELL-DEATH FOLLOWING ACUTE EXPERIMENTAL SPINAL-CORD INJURY

The complex biochemical interactions following acute spinal cord injur y have undergone considerable investigation recently. Progress has bee n made in discovering both primary and secondary injury cascades that combine to produce the ultimate neurologic insult. Traditionally, neur onal and supporting cell death following spinal cord injury have focus ed on necrotic death pathways resulting passively from the actual mech anical tissue damage and inflammatory processes which follow. However, the occurrence of programmed apoptotic cell death which is an activel y mediated cellular process may occur following acute spinal cord inju ry and, if present, may play a role in the ultimate neurologic insult. In this study, we document a chronologically-specific course of apopt otic cell death by the TUNEL assay technique following an acute experi mental spinal cord injury in the rat model. In this manner, apoptotic cell death following acute spinal cord injury may play a pivotal role in the secondary injury cascade which produces the ultimate neurologic insult and may allow potential for mediating neuronal survival via an ti-apoptotic factors such as the protooncogene Bcl-2.