Immunohistochemical Evaluation of Spinal Cord Injuries Treated with Amniotic Membrane

TL;DR

This study explores using amniotic membrane to treat spinal cord injuries in rats, showing it helps preserve tissue and reduce scar formation.

Contribution

The study is the first to investigate amniotic membrane's efficacy in treating acute spinal cord injuries in a rat model.

Findings

Amniotic membrane application significantly reduced cystic cavity size compared to untreated injuries.

Amniotic membrane limited glial scar formation and astrocyte reactivity in injured spinal cord tissue.

The membrane preserved nervous tissue structure and attenuated degeneration progression.

Abstract

Spinal cord injury
(SCI) severely disrupts central nervous system
(CNS) function by interrupting sensory and motor signal transmission,
often resulting in permanent deficits due to the formation of a glial
scar. Although the amniotic membrane (AM) is derived from the human
placenta and is a promising biomaterial, its efficacy in treating
SCI remains unexplored. This study investigates the therapeutic potential
of AM fragments in a surgically induced acute SCI model in rats, focusing
on preserving tissue integrity and modulating astrocyte distribution
and reactivity. SCI was experimentally induced by a drop-weight mini-guillotine
model in rats, which were subsequently allocated into three groups:
Control (C), Injury (I), and Amniotic Membrane (AM), where a 4 cm2 AM fragment was applied over the lesion. Animals were euthanized
after 28 days for histological and immunohistochemical analysis of
the T9-T10 region, specifically to assess Glial Fibrillary Acidic
Protein (GFAP) expression and identify reactive astrocytes. The application
of AM significantly preserved nervous tissue structure. The cystic
cavity area in the AM group (9.00 ± 7.65) was drastically lower
than in the Injury group (41.80 ± 11.30). Crucially, the AM fragments
attenuated the progression of nervous tissue degeneration, limiting
cavitation and glial scar formation while reducing astrocytic reactivity.
These findings establish AM as a viable and effective scaffold for
acute SCI treatment.

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