Evaluation of deprenyl effect on Bcl-2 protein expression in spinal motoneuron of adult rat following sciatic nerve root avulsion

¯Abstract Background: Avulsion of sciatic nerve ventral root leads to cell death of motor neurons. Deprenyl has a neuroprotective effect on spinal cord motoneurons. Objective: To evaluate the effect of deprenyl on Bcl -2 protein expression in adult rats after ventral root avulsion of sciatic nerve. Methods: This was an experimental study performed in Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences (Ahvaz, Iran) in 2005. Twenty four Sprague-Dawley adult male rats were divided into two experimental and control groups and each group further subdivided into three subgroups of 4 members. Rats were anesthetized with ketamin and xylazin injections followed by avulsion of left sciatic nerves. One hour later experimental subgroups were intraperitoneally injected with 0.25 mg/kg of deprenyl and control subgroups received an equal volume of distilled water intraperitoneally. Two intact rats were also considered as sham group. The first injection was performed one hour after avulsion and repeated daily for one, two and six weeks. Later, animals were sacrificed and the spines removed at L1 lumbar segment equal with L4-L6 spine segment. The segments were lysed in lysis buffer and centrifuged. Optical densities of supernatants were measured using a spectrophotometer. The normality of data was confirmed by Npartest. Findings: Optic density of Bcl-2 protein in two weeks experimental group (0.55+0.79) was significantly (p=0.042) higher than two weeks control group (0.424+0.058). Conclusion: It seems that Bcl-2 protein expression is increased by deprenyl drug