The use of behavioral methods to predict spinal cord plasticity

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Regenerative Medicine
• Spinal Cord Injury Research

Background:

• Mechanisms of central nervous system (CNS) functional recovery post-injury are poorly understood.
• Spinal cord injury in adult cats reveals that motor behavior recovery varies based on interrupted and intact neural systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between specific locomotor recovery patterns and compensatory neural changes after different types of spinal cord lesions.
• To evaluate the efficacy of spinal cord transplantation in promoting functional recovery after complete spinal transection in neonatal kittens.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of motor behavior (overground and reflex locomotion) and associated neuroanatomical changes (afferent and descending pathways) following spinal cord hemisection and deafferentation in adult cats.
• Assessment of locomotor development and function in neonatal kittens with complete spinal transection, with and without transplantation of E26 cat spinal cord tissue.

Main Results:

• Hemisection leads to recovery of overground and reflex locomotion, with altered limb placement and increased afferent input.
• Deafferentation results in abnormal overground locomotion and absent reflex locomotion, associated with increased descending serotonergic input.
• Spinal cord transplants in kittens enable the development of overground locomotion, suggesting partial restoration of descending control and pathway regeneration, despite abnormal kinematics.

Conclusions:

• Recovery of specific locomotor behaviors after spinal cord injury can predict compensatory neural adaptations.
• Spinal cord transplantation in neonatal kittens offers a potential strategy for promoting functional recovery and descending pathway regeneration after severe spinal cord injury.