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Background Electroconvulsion therapy is likely to serve as an effective preconditioning stimulus for inducing tolerance to ischemic brain injury. The current study examines whether electrical stimuli on the spinal cord is also capable of inducing tolerance to ischemic spinal cord injury by transient aortic occlusion. Methods Spinal cord ischemia was induced by occlusion of the descending thoracic aorta in combination with maintaining systemic hypotension (40 mmHg) during the procedure. Animals implanted with epidural electrodes were divided into four groups according to electrical stimulation and sham. Two groups consisted of rapid preconditioning (RE group, n = 8) and sham procedure (RC group, n = 8) 30 min before 9 min of spinal cord ischemia. In the two groups that underwent delayed preconditioning, rats were exposed to 9 min of aortic occlusion 24 h after either pretreatment with epidural electrical stimulation (DE group, n = 8) or sham (DC group, n = 8). In addition, rats were exposed to 6-11 min of spinal cord ischemia at 30 min or 24 h after epidural electrical stimulation or sham stimulation. The group P50 represents the duration of spinal cord ischemia associated with 50% probability of resultant paraplegia. Results Pretreatment with electrical stimulation in the DE group but not the RE group protected the spinal cord against ischemia, and this stimulation prolonged the P50 by approximately 15.0% in the DE group compared with the DC group. Conclusions Although the optimal setting for this electrical preconditioning should be determined in future studies, the results suggest that epidural electrical stimulation will be a useful approach to provide spinal protection against ischemia.

UNLABELLED Recent in vitro data indicate that isoflurane can reduce N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated responses and thereby might reduce excitotoxicity. However, the effect of isoflurane on NMDA receptor-mediated toxicity in vivo is not known. We conducted the present study to evaluate the effect of isoflurane on injury produced by cortical injection of NMDA in vivo and to compare it with dizocilpine, an antagonist of the NMDA receptor. Fasted Wistar-Kyoto rats were anesthetized with isoflurane. NMDA 50 nmoles (5-microL volume) were stereotactically injected into the cortex (2.8 mm lateral and 2.8 mm rostral to the bregma, depth 2 mm) of animals in one of four groups. In the isoflurane groups, the end-tidal concentration of isoflurane was maintained at either electroencephalogram (EEG)-burst suppression (BS) doses (2.2%-2.3%, n = 12) or a 1 minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC) dose (n = 10). In the dizocilpine group (n = 10), 10 mg/kg dizocilpine was injected IV 15 min before the NMDA injection. In the awake group and the dizocilpine group, anesthesia was discontinued on completion of the NMDA injection, and the animals were allowed to awaken. In the animals in the control group (n = 10), 20 microL of artificial cerebrospinal fluid was injected into the cortex. Injury to the cortex was evaluated 2 days after the NMDA injection. In 1 MAC doses and EEG-BS doses, isoflurane reduced the injury produced by a cortical NMDA injection compared with the awake state (1.74+/-0.49 and 0.96+/-0.46 vs 2.34+/-0.56 mm3; P = 0.02). Dizocilpine reduced cortical injury (0.56+/-0.27; P = 0.01) compared with the awake state. Injury in the control group was limited to the trauma produced by cannula insertion. In the isoflurane EEG-BS and dizocilpine groups, the injury was not different from the control group. IMPLICATIONS Isoflurane can reduce N-methyl-D-aspartate-mediated cortical injury in vivo in a dose-dependent manner. These data are consistent with the previously demonstrated ability of isoflurane to reduce N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor-mediated responses in vitro.