Fax +41 61 306 12 34 E-Mail karger@karger.ch www.karger.com Original Paper Med Princ Pract 2011;20:19–22 DOI: 10.1159/000319772 Anti-Oxidative Effect of Lipoic Acid in Spinal Cord Ischemia/Reperfusion Sheyda Shaafi   a Mohammad Razm Afrooz   a Babak Hajipour   d Alireza Dadashi   b Mohammad Mehdi Hosseinian   c Ali Khodadadi   e a  Neuroscience Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, b  Department of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Army University of Medical Sciences, and c  Department of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, d Faculty of Medicine, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, and e  Department of Veterinary Clinical Pathology, Science and Research Branch of Islamic Azad University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran maintaining the oxidant/anti-oxidant ion balance during spinal cord ischemia. Reperfusion may have contributed to the protective effects seen in the LA pretreatment. Copyright © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel Introduction Thoracoabdominal aortic surgery and aortic cross clamping may induce transient spinal ischemia and lead to various degrees of spinal cord injury, including para- plegia [1, 2]. This complication has been attributed to temporary or permanent ischemia of the spinal cord caused by interruption of the blood supply during aortic cross-clamping [3], dissection, rupture, and prolonged clamp times [4]. Clinical adjuncts designed to reduce ischemic times, swelling of the spinal cord and monitor neurological function postoperatively have improved outcomes but have not eliminated the problem [5, 6]. The neurological deficits resulting from ischemia and reper- fusion (I/R) injury may potentially be ameliorated by pharmacological manipulation. For this reason, our in- terest has centered on the basic mechanisms of injury of nervous tissue caused by ischemia and reperfusion [7]. Key Words Ischemia/reperfusion  Lipoic acid  Spine Abstract Objective: Lipoic acid (LA) is an effective anti-oxidant agent that can scavenge free radicals in biological systems. The aim of this research was to study the probable protective effect of LA in spinal ischemic/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Materials and Methods: Thirty male Wistar rats, weighing 230–285 g, were assigned randomly into 3 groups (10 animals in each group): sham spinal I/R, and spinal I/R + LA. The spinal I/R + LA rats received LA 100 mg/kg subcutaneously 3 days prior to ischemia induction and 3 days after. The induction of isch- emia lasted for 30 min. Results: At 72 h postoperatively, the neurological status was worse in the I/R group than the sham group (p ! 0.05). The neurological status of animals in the LA-treated group appeared better than the I/R group (p ! 0.05). In the I/R group, tissue glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and super oxide dismutase (SOD) activity were significantly less compared to the control group (p ! 0.05). In the LA-treat- ed group, tissue GPx and SOD levels were higher compared to the I/R group (p ! 0.05). Conclusions: LA pretreatment reduced neurologic injury in the rats, most probably by Received: October 8, 2009 Accepted: May 3, 2010 Dr. Babak Hajipour Faculty of Medicine, Islamic Azad University Post Box 51385-3633 Tabriz City (Iran) Tel. +98 9 141 075 936, E-Mail hajipourb  @  yahoo.com © 2010 S. Karger AG, Basel 1011–7571/11/0201–0019$38.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger.com/mpp