Low-Dose Taxol Promotes Neuronal Axons Extension and Functional Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury

Figure 5

Low-dose Taxol promotes functional recovery in SCI rats. (a) ‘A1’: Experimental flow chart. ‘A2’: T8-T9 lamina is removed, and the spinal cord tissue below the lamina is exposed. The exposed spinal cord tissue is shown by the arrow. ‘A3’: Spinal cord tissue with a length of 4 mm is removed in the transverse section to establish the acute stage model for rat SCI. ‘A4’: Thrombin-fibrinogen materials carrying different doses of Taxol are implanted immediately into the lesion sites of the injured rats. (b) BBB scores for motor function in each group at 120 days after injury. p <0.05, p <0.01, p <0.001. (c) Electrophysiological CMEP waveform. The stimulation intensity is 25 mV; the recording voltage is 1 mV/D; the recording current is 5 mS/D. (d) The latency of P and N peaks in the Taxol 0 nmol/L group and Taxol 0.05, 0.5, and 5 nmol/L groups show no significant differences between normal rats and injured rats. The latent period of peaks P and N represent the nerve conduction ability in the injured area, and the Taxol-treated groups show significant improvements. (e) The P-N peak-to-peak amplitude in each group decreases to more than 80% of the normal value, indicating a conduction block during evoked potential conduction. (f) The P-N peak-to-peak amplitude of the Taxol 0.05 nmol/L and 0.5 nmol/L groups show a more significant advantage as compared to the non-Taxol group.

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