To study the effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on the activity of superoxygen dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in spinal cord tissue, a rat spinal cord injury (SCI) model was established. The results showed that the activity of SOD and CAT in the spinal cord decreased significantly after injury, bat recovered after the treatment with 0 25MPa HBO and 0 25MPa HBO+hormone. These results suggest that HBO can increase the activity of anti oxidase in spinal cord,and prevent or relieve the injury by free radicals. Thus it can recover the function of spinal cord.

To study the mechanism of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on spinal cord injury (SCI), we duplicated a SCI model and determined the concentrations of excitatory amino acids [EAA, including aspartic acid (Asp) and glutamic acid (Glu)] in spinal cord tissue after treated with 0 1 MPa HBO, 0 25 MPa HBO, 0 25 MPa N 2 O 2 and hormone, respectively. The results showed that the concentration of EAA (Glu) in the spinal cord significantly increased after injury, whereas after treatment it decreased in all but the N 2 O 2 group. It decreased most significantly in 0 25MPa HBO and 0 25MPa HBO+hormone groups. There were significant differences between 0 25MPa HBO group and 0 1MPa HBO group, 0 25MPa HBO+hormone group and pure hormone group ( P