Effect of Vitamin B12 on Functional Recovery and Histopathologic Changes of Tibial Nerve-Crushed Rats

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested a neuroprotective effect for vitamin B12. The present study investigated the effects of vitamin B12, diclofenac and celecoxib in separate and combined treatments on functional recovery of crushed tibial nerve in rats. In ketamine plus xylazin anesthetized rats, right tibial nerve was crushed using a small hemoatatic forceps. Footprints were recorded 1 day before and on days 7, 14 and 21 after induction of nerve injury. Tibial functional index (TFI) was used to evaluate the recovery of tibial nerve function. Histological changes of tibial nerve were investigated by light microscopy. The recovery of TFI values were significantly accelerated with 10 consecutive days treatments with 0.1 and 0.5 mg/kg of vitamin B12, 5 mg/kg of diclofenac and 1 and 5 mg/kg of celecoxib. The severity of Wallerian degeneration was reduced by above-mentioned doses of vitamin B12, diclofenac and celecoxib. Documented effects were observed when 0.1 mg/kg of vitamin B12 was concurrently used with 1 mg/kg of diclofenac and or 0.2 mg/kg of celecoxib. In the present study, vitamin B12, celecoxib and diclofenac (at a high dose) showed neuroprotective effects. Inhibition of cyclooxygenase (COX) 1 and 2 pathways may be involved in neuroprotective effect of vitamin B12.

Incidence, diagnostics and treatment algorithm of nerve lesions after traumatic shoulder dislocations: a retrospective multicenter study

“…Neurobion ® (vitamin B1 and B6) was administered to all patients as supportive therapy; however, evidence of this supportive treatment is lacking in humans. At present, a few studies describing the potential of vitamin B in nerve recovery in animals exist; however, this effect has yet to be proven in human studies [16,23,24].…”

The Role of Neurotropic B Vitamins in Nerve Regeneration

“…As mentioned previously, the evidence for a nerve-regenerating function of vitamin B12 (cobalamin) is strong, and 15 experimental animal studies are available (Table 1). For instance, experiments in rats revealed that it promoted myelin formation and reduced Wallerian degeneration responses [41,42] and were, similar to vitamin B1 and 3 BioMed Research International [42] (Figure 1). Cobalamin is essential for the folate dependent methionine cycle.…”

“…If the amount of B12 does not cover the demand (which is significantly increased during nerve regeneration and myelin formation), not only can important proteins (e.g. the myelin basic protein) not be generated but also homocysteine accumulates and promotes oxidative stress and damage [41][42][43][44][45]. This may aggravate Wallerian degeneration and delay or even prevent the progress of regeneration.…”

<p>Ulinastatin Promotes Regeneration of Peripheral Nerves After Sciatic Nerve Injury by Targeting let-7 microRNAs and Enhancing NGF Expression</p>

“…27 Recently, many drugs and treatment strategies have been developed to improve the prognosis of peripheral nerve injury. [28][29][30] UTI inhibits polymorphonuclear leukocyte-derived elastase and pro-inflammatory cytokines including TNF-α, IL-1, IL-6, and IL-8; it also suppresses the activation of polymorphonuclear leukocyte, macrophages, and platelets, which mediates the injury of organs and tissues. 31 In some countries, UTI is applied to the clinical treatment of shock and pancreatitis, 31 and accumulating basic medical researches suggests that it is promising to protect the organs and tissues from multiple pathogenic factors.…”