Abstract: Objective To study the effects of a Gold Belt (GB, a traditional Chinese herbal medicine) combined with methylprednisolone
(MP) on the motor function and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in rats with contusive spinal
cord injury (SCI). Methods Thirty adult female SD rats were randomly divided into 5 equal groups, namely the sham-operated
group, SCI group, SCI with MP treatment group (MP group, with intramuscular injection of 50 mg/kg MP within 8 hours after
SCI and then dosage reduced 10 mg/kg daily), SCI with GB treatment group (GB group, with intragastric gavage of GB 50 mg/
kg once daily for 7 days), and combined GB and MP treatment group. The Basso, Beattie & Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor scale
was used to evaluate the hindlimb motor function of the rats on days 1, 3, 7, 14, 21 and 28 after the injury. After the last
evaluation the rats were sacrificed for immunohistochemistry to observe the localization of BDNF in the ventral and dorsal horn
of spinal cord. Results BDNF were distributed mainly in neurons in the spinal cord grey matter ventral horn and dorsal horn of
the rats. The number of BDNF-positive neurons and BBB scores in the combined treatment group were significantly higher than
those in the other 4 groups (P<0.05). Conclusion GB combined with MP produces better therapeutic effects for treating SCI than
GB or MP used alone, and such effects are probably related with enhanced BDNF expression in the spinal cord.