Inhibition of SNK-SPAR signaling pathway promotes the restoration of motor function in a rat model of ischemic stroke.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of SPAR signaling pathway on the restoration of motor function in ischemic stroke (IS). Sprague-Dawley male rats were separated into the control and sham groups, as well as the group for middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model establishment. Successfully established rat ischemic models were randomly divided into model, SNKMCAO-del and pcDNA3.1-SNK groups. The evaluation of motor function among the rats in each group was assessed using a balance beam, a screen test and the Garcia scoring method. CatWalk gait analysis was employed to evaluate the effect of the SNK signaling pathway on rat motor function. Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) and TUNEL staining were techniques were utilized for cerebral infarction (CI) area as well for hippocampal neuron apoptosis. The quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and western blotting methods were performed to detect mRNA and protein expressions of SNK and SPAR. When compared with the model group, the SNKMCAO-del group displayed decreased motor function score and CI area, while contrasting results were observed in the pcDNA3.1-SNK group. According to the results obtained from the CatWalk gait analysis, the SNKMCAO-del group showed a clear improvement compared to the model group whereas the pcDNA3.1-SNK group exhibited poorer results than the model group in the objective parameters of the study, such as movement, speed, running duration, print area, maximal contact area, maximal, mean intensity, and stride length. These findings suggested that SNK gene silencing promotes motor function by inhibiting the SNK-SPAR signaling pathway in rats with ischemic stroke.