Fig. 3.
Levels of spinal cord apoptosis are influenced by postnatal age but not by intrathecal levobupivacaine. (A) Representative section of dorsal horn demonstrating activated caspase-3 positive cells 24 h following saline at postnatal day (P)3 (scale bar = 100 μm). (B) Activated caspase-3 positive (AC-3+ve) cell counts 24 h after intrathecal injection of saline or 0.5% levobupivacaine (l-bupi) in P3 and P7 rat pups. Bars represent mean ± SEM, n = 4–5 per group. There were no significant differences between saline versus levobupivacaine groups in the number of positive cells in the total section (P = 0.62) or dorsal horn (P = 0.17) at P3 or at P7 (P = 0.88 and P = 0.66 for total and dorsal horn cells, respectively; two-tailed Mann–Whitney test). (C) Fluoro-Jade C positive (FJ-C+ve) cell counts 24 h after intrathecal injection of saline or 0.5% levobupivacaine in P3 and P7 rat pups. Total numbers in the transverse spinal sections and the proportion distributed in the dorsal horn are shown. Bars represent mean ± SEM, n = 4–5 per group. There were no significant differences between saline versus levobupivacaine groups in the number of positive cells in the total section (P = 0.11) or dorsal horn (P = 0.10) at P3 or at P7 (P = 0.56 and P = 0.89 for total and dorsal horn cells, respectively; two-tailed Mann–Whitney test).