Effect of Aspirin on Spinal Cord Injury: An Experimental Study

Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory drug, peroxyl radical scavenger, and antioxidant agent that inhibits phospholipases, nitric oxide synthetases, and cyclooxygenase enzymes. The existing literature contains no studies on the effects of various doses of aspirin on spinal cord injury (SCI). Therefore, we sought to investigate the putative effects of aspirin on experimental SCI. The weight-drop injury model was used to produce SCI in 100 albino Wistar rats. The animals were allocated to five groups: a control group, where the rats did not undergo any surgical or medical intervention except for anesthesia; a sham-treated group, where laminectomy was performed without SCI and no further therapy was administered; and three other groups, where the rats with SCI received low-dose aspirin [20 mg/kg], high-dose aspirin [80 mg/kg], and a vehicle, respectively. Half of the rats were sacrificed 24 hours later, and their spinal cords were excised for biochemical studies. The other rats were subjected to Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale scoring once a week for 6 consecutive weeks. Aspirin decreased lipid peroxidation following SCI as the mean (+/- standard error) catalase level was significantly higher in the high-dose aspirin group (46.10 +/- 12.01) than in the sham-treated group (16.07 +/- 2.42) and the vehicle-treated group (15.31 +/- 3.20) (P<0.05; P<0.05, respectively). Both of the groups treated with high-dose and low-dose aspirin demonstrated a higher mean BBB score than did the control group (P<0.001) and the sham-treated group (P<0.001). Our data provide evidence in support of the potential effects of aspirin in biochemical and neurobehavioral recovery after SCI.