Salvianolic acid B activates Wnt/β-catenin signaling following spinal cord injury

Neural cell apoptosis serves a key role in spinal cord injury (SCI), which is a threat to human health. The present study aimed to evaluate the neuroprotective mechanism of salvianolic acid B (Sal B) in a spinal cord injury (SCI) rat model. Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan scores demonstrated that Sal B treatment significantly increased locomotor functional recovery in SCI rats compared with SCI model rats between 3 and 8 weeks. Nissl staining demonstrated that Sal B enhanced motor neuron survival and decreased lesion size after SCI. Reverse transcription-quantitative PCR analysis demonstrated that Sal B treatment significantly enhanced the mRNA levels of lymphoid enhancer biding factor-1 and HNF1 homeobox A. In addition, Sal B treatment enhanced the expression of β-catenin. Western blot analysis determined that Sal B treatment significantly decreased the expression of pro-apoptosis proteins, including Bax, cleaved caspase-3 and −9, in spinal cord tissues after SCI but enhanced the expression of Bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic protein. Furthermore, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining demonstrated that, compared with the SCI group, Sal B treatment decreased the number of TUNEL-positive neurons. In summary, the present study produced novel data demonstrating the neuroprotective effect of Sal B on SCI with the mechanism likely primarily mediated via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. The present findings may be of potential therapeutic value for future SCI treatments.