Objective To study the neuroprotective effect of uric acid (UA) after acute spinal cord injury(SCI) in rats. Methods Fortyfive female adult SD rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: the control group(n=5), spinal cord injury group with saline treatment ,and a group using UA treatment. All spinal cord injury models were made in Allen’s way. In UA treatment group,UA 500 mg·kg-1 (prepared into suspension by 0.9% sodium chloride solution)was injected into peritoneal cavity 1 hour before and 4 hours after SCI. In other groups the same volumes of saline were injected at the same time spots. The level of malondialdehyde(MDA) and superoxidedismutase(SOD) in the injured spinal cord tissue were detected and the tissue sections of the injured spinal cord were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferasemediated dUTP nick end labeling methods(TUNEL) were adopted to label the apoptotic cells at 8,24,72 h , 7 d after the injury. ResultsAs compared with the spinalcord injury group, the MDA levels in tissues of spinal cord was reduced and SOD levels increased significantly in UA treatment group. The pathological changes of spinal cord were improved in the UA group, the apoptotic cells were decreased in the UA group than those in the SCI group. ConclusionThe results suggest that UA has neuroprotective effects on the injured spinal cord by inhibiting free radical induced injury and decreasing apoptosis after acute spinal cord injury in rats.