Assessment of Neurochemical Changes Induced by Spinal Cord Injury using Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy

The goals of this study were: to determine whether Nuclear Magnetic Resonance NMR spectroscopy could produce decipherable spectra of the metabolites in the spinal cord even when small volumes of tissue are used, and to assess the spatio-temporal changes in metabolite concentrations following spinal cord injury. Adult rats received a severe spinal cord injury at the 8th thoracic level. Spinal cord tissue rostral, around, and caudal to the location of injury was then extracted 4 hrs, 24 hrs, 1 wk, or 4 wks after injury, or at an arbitrary time in control animals with intact spinal cords. These extracts were processed and NMR spectral were obtained using an 800 MHz spectrometer. Spectra of several metabolites with high signal-to-noise ratio were obtained. Significant changes were observed N-acetylaspartate (NAA) which decreased around the lesion immediately after injury and remained at suppressed levels, Nacetalaspartylgutamate (NAAG), which decreased around the lesion after one day and remained at suppressed and myo-inositol which after 4 weeks was elevated thought the spinal cord. This study proves that it is possible to use NMR to look at chemical changes in the spinal cord . The changes observed here may be observable in-vivo.