Pioglitazone treatment following spinal cord injury maintains acute mitochondrial integrity and increases chronic tissue sparing and functional recovery.

Pioglitazone treatment following spinal cord injury maintains acute mitochondrial integrity and increases chronic tissue sparing and functional recovery. Exp Neurol. 2017 Mar 30;293:74-82 Authors: Patel SP, Cox DH, Gollihue JL, Bailey WM, Geldenhuys WJ, Gensel JC, Sullivan PG, Rabchevsky AG Abstract Pioglitazone is an FDA-approved PPAR-γ agonist drug used to treat diabetes, and it has demonstrated neuroprotective effects in multiple models of central nervous system (CNS) injury. Acute treatment after spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats is reported to suppress neuroinflammation, rescue injured tissues, and improve locomotor recovery. In the current study, we additionally assessed the protective efficacy of pioglitazone treatment on acute mitochondrial respiration, as well as functional and anatomical recovery after contusion SCI in adult male C57BL/6 mice. Mice received either vehicle or pioglitazone (10mg/kg) at either 15min or 3h after injury (75kdyn at T9) followed by a booster at 24h post-injury. At 25h, mitochondria were isolated from spinal cord segments centered on the injury epicenters and assessed for their respiratory capacity. Results showed significantly compromised mitochondrial respiration 25h following SCI, but pioglitazone treatment that was initiated either at 15min or 3h post-injury significantly maintained mitochondrial respiration rates near sham levels. A second cohort of injured mice received pioglitazone at 15min ...
Source: Experimental Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Exp Neurol Source Type: research