China Journal of Orthopaedics and Traumatology 2015;28(8):738-742

Application of oil red O staining in spinal cord injury of rats.

Duo ZHANG ; Xu ZHAI ; Xi-jing HE

Country

China

Language

Chinese

Abstract

OBJECTIVETo explore the value of the application of oil red O staining in spinal cord injury (SCI) of rats.

METHODSWith simple randomization, 24 Spargue-Dawley male rats were divided into normal control group including 6, and SCI group including 18. Spinal cord was transected at spinal lever T10 to build SCI model. Six rats of SCI group were sacrificed randomly at 1, 2, 4 weeks after surgery. After the spinal cord tissue sections were made, oil red O staining methods were used to observe the changes at the end of transected spinal cord. Images were analyzed by Image-Pro Plus 6.0 and SPSS 20.0 software.

RESULTSThe oil red O staining of normal control group showed that white matter surrounded by myelin sheath was clear and obviously distinctive from grey matter. Uneven and strengthened staining in oil O was observed in grey matter of SCI group at 1, 2, 4 weeks post-SCI.

CONCLUSIONIt is a good method to label the myelin sheath in spinal cord and distinct white matter from grey matter by oil red O staining. Analysis of the images showed that lipid may become another target for drugs, which needs more researches.