Post-traumatic moderate systemic hyperthermia worsens behavioural outcome after spinal cord injury in the rat

Abstract

Study design: A standardized rat model of compression spinal cord injury (SCI) was used to test the effect of transient systemic hyperthermia on long-term behavioural and morphometric outcomes. Objective: To determine the effect of hyperthermia on the development of spinal cord lesion after SCI. Setting: Institute of Neurobiology, Slovak Republic. Methods: Male Wistar rats (n = 30) weighing between 300 and 330 g were used in the study. After incomplete spinal injury performed by balloon compression at the Th8-Th9 spinal level, rats were randomly divided into two groups. Rats in the treatment group were maintained hyperthermic for 3 h (rectal temperature at 40.5 ± 0.5°C), immediately after SCI; rats from the control group received exactly the same procedure except that their rectal temperature was maintained at 37 ± 0.5°C. Results: The 3 h of post-traumatic hyperthermic treatment worsened behavioural outcome after SCI. Morphometric analysis showed that hyperthermia had a deleterious effect on white and grey matter, but the results did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion: These results indicate that systemic hyperthermia exacerbates secondary processes in the lesion and significantly worsens behavioural outcome after traumatic SCI in the rat. © 2006 International Spinal Cord Society All rights reserved.