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Updated: May 15, 2026
A Contusion Model of Severe Spinal Cord Injury in Rats
Published on: August 17, 2013
Temporal modifications in bone following spinal cord injury in rats
Carla Christina Medalha1, Beatriz Oliveira Amorim, Kelly Rosseti Fernandes
1Department of Bioscience, Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Introduction:
The aim of this study was to investigate the temporal modifications in bone mass, bone biomechanical properties and bone morphology in spinal cord injured rats 2, 4 and 6 weeks after a transection.
Material And Methods:
Control animals were randomly distributed into four groups (n = 10 each group): control group (CG) - control animals sacrificed immediately after surgery; spinal cord-injured 2 weeks (2W) - spinal cord-injured animals sacrificed 2 weeks after surgery; spinal cord-injured 4 weeks (4W) - spinal cord-injured animals sacrificed 4 weeks after surgery; spinal cord-injured 6 weeks (6W) - spinal cord-injured animals sacrificed 6 weeks after surgery.
Results:
Biomechanical properties of the right tibia were determined by a three-point bending test and injured animals showed a statistically significant decrease in maximal load compared to control animals. The right femur was used for densitometric analysis and bone mineral content of the animals sacrificed 4 and 6 weeks after surgery was significantly higher compared to the control animals and animals sacrificed 2 weeks after surgery. Histopathological and morphological analysis of tibiae revealed intense resorptive areas in the group 2 weeks after injury only.
Conclusions:
The results of this study show that this rat model is a valuable tool to investigate bone remodeling processes specifically associated with SCI. Taken together, our results suggest that spinal cord injury induced bone loss within 2 weeks after injury in rats.
