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Recovery of function in spinalized, neonatal rats
J W Commissiong1, Y Sauve, K Csonka
1Department of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Neonatal rats, when spinalized on the fourteenth postnatal day, showed minimal recovery of function in their hindlimbs. Bridging the cut spinal cord with E16 fetal spinal cord tissue did not improve functional recovery. Bridging, plus treatment with GM1 ganglioside, caused a significant (p less than 0.05) improvement in function, versus the bridged animals treated with saline. The E16 spinal cord transplants survived poorly, or not at all. Contact of the hindlimbs with a surface is necessary to elicit function. Regrowth of descending fibers into the caudal region of the cord is probably not involved in functional recovery. It is suggested that functional recovery is mediated by hindlimb proprioceptive afferents, which activate the lumbosacral motor central pattern generator.
Neonatal rats, when spinalized on the fourteenth postnatal day, showed minimal recovery of function in their hindlimbs. Bridging the cut spinal cord with E16 fetal spinal cord tissue did not improve functional recovery. Bridging, plus treatment with GM1 ganglioside, caused a significant (p less than 0.05) improvement in function, versus the bridged animals treated with saline. The E16 spinal cord transplants survived poorly, or not at all. Contact of the hindlimbs with a surface is necessary to elicit function. Regrowth of descending fibers into the caudal region of the cord is probably not involved in functional recovery. It is suggested that functional recovery is mediated by hindlimb proprioceptive afferents, which activate the lumbosacral motor central pattern generator.