DYNAMICS OF PATHOMORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN RAT ISCHEMIC SPINAL CORD AFTER TREATMENT WITH RECOMBINANT ERYTHROPOIETIN (EXPERIMENTAL STUDY)
Aim is to study the dynamics of morphological changes in spinal cord ischemic lesion in rats influenced by recombinant erythropoietin (REP). Materials and methods. The study was conducted on 40 mature rats. The animals were divided into two series of experiment 20 animals each. The first series of animals was the group of comparison with spinal cord ischemia model. In the second series the animals were administered intraperitoneally with 1000 international units of REP in 3, 24, and 48 hours. After the animals had been sacrificed, the spinal cord was removed for further histological and morphometric study. The obtained results were processed using analysis of variance. The statistical significance of differences between compared parameters of the groups was assessed with the Mann-Whitney U test. The differences were considered significant at p < 0.05 which corresponds to 95 % confidence interval. Results. The study of the spinal cord specimen showed that REP administration results in significantly higher levels of normal neurons and blood vessels, and in significantly lower count of chromatolytic neurons and ghost cells at all stages of experiment. Conclusion. At the early stages of experiment the REP effects increases ischemic tolerance of neurons, enhances the proliferation rate of gliocytes and endotheliocytes with development of a new blood stream.