High Gy induced vestibular disorders in guinea pigs and its countermeasure by preconditioning

Objective To explore if high G exposure can cause vestibular disorder in guinea pig and the possibility of preventing it by preconditioning with exposure to a low hypergravity environment before high G stimulus. Method A total of 86 guinea pigs were divided into 4 groups: 1)28 were treated with a stimulus of +10 Gy for 5 min (+10 Gy group);2)28 were preconditioned by exposure to 2 G environment for 8 d before the +10 Gy stimulus (preconditioning group); 3)20 were exposed to 2 G environment for 8 d, but without +10 Gy stimulus (2 G group); the rest 10 served as control. Their vestibular related behaviour, including vestibulo spinal reflex (VSR) and vestibulo ocular reflex (VOR) such as head tremble, head deviation, spontaneous nystagmus, eye deviation, body tilt or looping, were observed directly, the choline acetyltransferase(ChAT) activity in VNC (vestibular nucleon complex) in brain stem were investigated by immunohistochemistry technique, and the relative gamma in each group were analysed. Result The incidence of behavioral abnormalities (BA) in 10 Gy group(79%) is significantly higher than that in preconditioning group(50%).The relative gamma of staining showed that the content of ChAT in VNC of the +10 Gy group and preconditioning group were significantly higher than that in control group, but no difference was found between them in +10 Gy and preconditioning groups. Conclusion High G exposure of +10 Gy for 5 min could cause vestibular disorders in guinea pigs, and preconditioning with pre exposure to 2 G environment could alleviate it. ChAT activity changes in VNC may contribute to its mechanisms.