The main causes of dysfunction after a spinal cord injury (SCI) include primary and secondary injuries that occur during the first minutes, hours, to days after injury. This treatable secondary cascade provides a window of opportunity for delivering therapeutic interventions. An S/B remedy (Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and Bupleurum scorzonerifolfium Willd) has anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective, and anticarcinogenic effects in liver or neurodegenerative diseases. The present work examined the effect of S/B on injured spinal cord neurons in cultures and in vivo. S/B effectively reduced peroxide toxicity and lipopolysaccharide stimulation in both spinal cord neuron/glial and microglial cultures with the involvement of PKC and HSP70. The effect of S/B was further conducted in contusive SCI rats. Intraperitoneal injections of S/B to SCI rats preserved spinal cord tissues and effectively attenuated microglial activation. Consistently, S/B treatment significantly improved hindlimb functions of SCI rats. In the acute stage of injury, S/B treatment markedly reduced the levels of ED1 expression and lactate and had a tendency to decrease lipid peroxidation. Taken together, we demonstrated long-term hindlimb restoration alongside histological improvements with systemic S/B remedy treatment in a clinically relevant model of contusive SCI. Our findings highlight the potential of an S/B remedy for acute therapeutic intervention after SCI.
Keywords: Sho-Saiko-To; anti-inflammation; herbal remedy; neuronal/glial cultures; neuroprotection; spinal cord injury.