Induction of c-fos gene expression by spinal cord transection in Sus scrofa

Functional responses of primary sensory afferents and spinal cord were monitored in swine subjected to a high cervical (C1) spinal transection. Two and a half hours after transection, dorsal root ganglia and cervical and thoracolumbar spinal segments were processed immunocytochemically for the c-fos gene product, Fos and related antigens. In spinal-transected animals, Fos-like immunoreactivity (FLI) was induced in spinal laminae I, V, VII and X and the intermediolateral cell column but not in sensory ganglia as compared to controls: spinal-intact age-matched littermates. Spinal laminae expressing FLI harbor sympathetic and somatic interneurons and may aid in maintaining sympathetic outflow.