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Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Activity-based Training on a Treadmill with Spinal Cord Injured Wistar Rats
Published on: January 16, 2019
Synaptophysin and caspase-3 expression on lumbar segments of spinal cord after sensorimotor restriction during early
Felipe Stigger1, Silvia Barbosa2, Marília Rossato Marques3
1Department of Physiotherapy, Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Abstract:
The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether locomotor stimulation training could have beneficial effects on spinal cord plasticity consequent to sensorimotor restriction (SR). Male Wistar rats were exposed to SR from postnatal day 2 (P2) to P28. Control and experimental rats underwent locomotor stimulation training in a treadmill from P31 to P52. The intensity of the synaptophysin and caspase-3 immunoreaction was determined on ventral horn of spinal cord. The synaptophysin immunoreactivity was lower in the ventral horn of sensorimotor restricted rats compared to controls animals and was accompanied by an increased caspase-3 immunoreactivity. Those alterations were reversed at the end of the training period. Our results suggest that immobility affects the normal developmental process that spinal cord undergoes in early postnatal life influencing both pro-apoptotic and synapse markers. Also, we demonstrated that this phenomenon was reversed by 3 weeks of treadmill training.
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