Neuropathological and neuroprotective features of vitamin B12 on the dorsal spinal ganglion of rats after the experimental crush of sciatic nerve: An experimental study

Abstract

Background: Spinal motoneuron neuroprotection by vitaminB12 was previously reported; the present study was carried out to evaluate neuroprotectivity in the dorsal root ganglion sensory neuron.Methods: In present study thirty-six Wister-Albino rats (aged 8-9 weeks and weighing 200-250 g) were tested. The animals were randomly divided into 6 groups which every group contained 6 rats. Group A: received normal saline (for 42 days); Group B: vitamin B12 was administered (0.5 mg/kg/day for 21 days); Group C: received vitamin B12 (1 mg/kg/day for 21days); Group D: received vitamin B12 (0.5 mg/kg/day for 42 days); Group E; received vitamin B12 (1 mg/kg/day for 42 days); Group F; received no treatment. The L5 Dorsal Root Ganglion (DRG) neurons count compared to the number of left and right neurons .Furthermore, DRG sensory neurons for regeneration were evaluated 21 or 42 days after injury (each group was analyzed by One-Way ANOVA test).Results: (1): The comparison of left crushed neurons (LCN) number with right non-crushed neurons in all experimental groups (B, C, D and C), indicating a significant decline in their neurons enumeration (p<0/05). (2): The comparison of test group's LCN with the control group's LCN revealed a significant rise in the number of experimental group neurons (p<0/05). (3): Moreover, comparing the number of right neurons in experimental groups with the number of neurons in crushed neurons indicated that the average number of right neurons showed a significant increase in experimental groups (p<0/05).Conclusion: Consequently, the probability of nerve regeneration will be increased by the increment of the administered drug dosage and duration. On the other hand, the regeneration and healing in Dorsal Spinal Ganglion will be improved by increase of administration time and vitamin B12 dose, indicating that such vitamin was able to progress recovery process of peripheral nerves damage in experimental rats. Finally, our results have important implications for elucidating the mechanisms of nerve regeneration. Moreover, the results showed that vitaminB12 had a proliferative effect on the dorsal root ganglion sensory neuron.Virtual slides: The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/7395141841009256. © 2013 Hobbenaghi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.