Sevoflurane preconditioning ameliorates traumatic spinal cord injury through caveolin-3-dependent cyclooxygenase-2 inhibition

Acute traumatic spinal cord injury (tSCI) results in a lifetime of paralysis associated with a host of medical complications. The developing secondary complications of tSCI may result in further chronic neurodegenerative diseases. Sevoflurane preconditioning (SF-PreCon) has shown guaranteed protective effects in myocardial or cerebral ischemic/reperfusion injury. However, the role of SF-PreCon in tSCI still remains to be elucidated. Here, we found that SF-PreCon ameliorated the developing secondary complications through reducing the apoptosis rate and the secretion of inflammatory cytokines in injured spinal cord tissues, and therefore enhancing the recovery after tSCI. Notably, we demonstrated that SF-PreCon ameliorates tSCI through inhibiting Cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2). Importantly, we verified that SF-PreCon inhibits the expression of COX-2 and reduces the apoptosis rate after tSCI via the induction of Caveolin-3 (Cav-3). Taken together, our results suggest that SF-PreCon ameliorates tSCI via Cav-3-dependent COX-2 inhibition and provide an economical and practical method against the secondary injury after tSCI.