Abstract. Erythropoietin (EPO) is a promising therapeutic agent used in a variety of spinal cord injuries. Therefore, identifying the specific molecular pathway mediating the neuronal protective effect of EPO after spinal cord injury (SCI) is of great value to the patients concerned. Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-B is an important factor in the recovery of neurological function. We explored changes in the expression of PDGF-B in spinal cord injury rats after receiving EPO treatment. We used a weight-drop contusion SCI model, and EPO treatment group rats received single doses ofEPO (1,000 U/ kg i.p.) immediately after the operation. Seven days after the operation, the results revealed a more rapid recovery as noted by the higher BBB scores, less disruption and more neuronal regeneration of the spinal cord in the EPO treatment group than that in the SCI group. PDGF-B expression also increased in the EPO treatment group compared to that in the SCI group (P<0.01). This study showed that PDGF-B plays a role in the neuronal protective effect of EPO on spinal cord injury in rats, which may help to explain the quick recovery after EPO treatment of spinal cord injury.
Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress was triggered at the early stage of SCI. Increased expression of CHOP can be found in the injured segment of the spinal cord after injury. EPO treatment could prevent pathological alterations from severe spinal cord injury by reducing expression of CHOP.
Our work provides experimental evidence that the elevated expression of TSP-1 can be detected in the injured segment of the spinal cord at 12 hours after injury in diabetic rats. It may contribute to severe damage in diabetic rats after SCI.
The minimally invasive guide can eliminate discrepancies resulting from the surgeon's own sensory input when inserting screws under the guidance of CT, making percutaneous iliosacral screw fixation more accurate, safe and simple.
Ultrasonic guided waves based on sensors array effectively improve the detection sensitivity of defects and realize the intuitive imaging of defects. In this research, a 16-channel guided wave excitation/acquisition system is simply integrated for the array focusing detection. Using a FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) as the main control unit, a high-voltage excitation of a multi-channel tone-burst signal with synchronous signal acquisition is designed. Experiments are conducted by the developed multi-channel system and the piezoelectric linear array. A guided wave phased array and the total focusing imaging algorithm are demonstrated on a 1mm aluminum plate. The experimental results show that the system can meet the practical requirements of guided wave array focusing detection. By combining the total focusing method and the phase-based sign coherence factor, the compounded image shows that the artifacts can effectively be reduced, and the contrast is improved. Meanwhile, this system can solve the problem of distributed sensor array detection, in which the process is cumbersome and inefficient previously. Through the system and the sensor array, the guided wave phased focusing method and the composite total focusing method can effectively improve the sensitivity and the positioning accuracy of defect detection in thin plate.
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