RXRα Blocks Nerve Regeneration after Spinal Cord Injury by Targeting p66shc

Figure 2

RXRα inhibited functional recovery after spinal cord injury in rats. (a) The BMS motor scores of rats in all groups were close to 0 at 3 days after injury. The motor scores gradually increased with the injury time. At 4 weeks after injury, rats that received RXRα antagonist had significantly higher motor scores than did rats in the spinal cord injury group, whereas the rats that received RXRα agonist had significantly lower motor scores than did rats in the spinal cord injury group 5 weeks after injury. (b) Five weeks after injury, the BMS motor scores of rats that received RXRα agonist were significantly lower than those of rats in the spinal cord injury group, and the BMS motor scores of rats that received RXRα antagonist were significantly higher than those of rats in the spinal cord injury group. (c) Rotarod test results showed that neither the RXRα agonist nor antagonist affected the rotarod test time for rats at 3 weeks after injury. The rotarod test time for rats given the RXRα agonist was significantly shorter than that for rats in the spinal cord injury group at 5 weeks after spinal cord injury. The rotarod test time for rats given RXRα antagonist was significantly longer than that for rats in the spinal cord injury group, indicating that RXRα hindered the recovery of motor function after spinal cord injury in rats. (d) Footprint length experiments showed that the distance between the 2 footprints for rats in the RXRα agonist group was significantly shorter than that for rats in the control group and the spinal cord injury group, while the distance between 2 footprints was significantly longer for the rats in the RXRα antagonist group than that for rats in the control group; however, recovery to the preinjury level was not attained. /group. vs. control, ; vs. control, ; ^#vs. spinal cord injury (SCI) group, ; ^##vs. SCI group, .

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