The Gigantocellular Reticular Nucleus Plays a Significant Role in Locomotor Recovery after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury
| العنوان: | The Gigantocellular Reticular Nucleus Plays a Significant Role in Locomotor Recovery after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury |
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| المؤلفون: | Martin Wieckhorst, Flavio Bizzozzero, Anna-Sophie Hofer, Regula Schneider, Anne K. Engmann, Dario Pfyffer, Martin E. Schwab, Stefan Imobersteg, Marc P. Schneider |
| المصدر: | The Journal of Neuroscience, 40 (43) J Neurosci |
| بيانات النشر: | Society for Neuroscience, 2020. |
| سنة النشر: | 2020 |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | 0301 basic medicine, Walking, Hindlimb, 03 medical and health sciences, Nerve Fibers, 0302 clinical medicine, Forelimb, medicine, Animals, Spinal cord injury, Spinal Cord Injuries, Swimming, Research Articles, Neuronal Plasticity, biology, Gigantocellular reticular nucleus, Reticular Formation, General Neuroscience, Lamprey, Axotomy, Recovery of Function, Reticulospinal tract, biology.organism_classification, Spinal cord, medicine.disease, Axons, Biomechanical Phenomena, Nerve Regeneration, Rats, 030104 developmental biology, medicine.anatomical_structure, Rats, Inbred Lew, Female, Brainstem, Neuroscience, motor recovery, plasticity, regeneration, reticulospinal tract, spinal cord injury, sprouting, Locomotion, 030217 neurology & neurosurgery |
| الوصف: | Traditionally, the brainstem has been seen as hardwired and poorly capable of plastic adaptations following spinal cord injury (SCI). Data acquired over the past decades, however, suggest differently: following SCI in various animal models (lamprey, chick, rodents, nonhuman primates), different forms of spontaneous anatomic plasticity of reticulospinal projections, many of them originating from the gigantocellular reticular nucleus (NRG), have been observed. In line with these anatomic observations, animals and humans with incomplete SCI often show various degrees of spontaneous motor recovery of hindlimb/leg function. Here, we investigated the functional relevance of two different modes of reticulospinal fiber growth after cervical hemisection, local rewiring of axotomized projections at the lesion site versus compensatory outgrowth of spared axons, using projection-specific, adeno-associated virus-mediated chemogenetic neuronal silencing. Detailed assessment of joint movements and limb kinetics during overground locomotion in female adult rats showed that locally rewired as well as compensatory NRG fibers were responsible for different aspects of recovered forelimb and hindlimb functions (i.e., stability, strength, coordination, speed, or timing). During walking and swimming, both locally rewired as well as compensatory NRG plasticity were crucial for recovered function, while the contribution of locally rewired NRG plasticity to wading performance was limited. Our data demonstrate comprehensively that locally rewired as well as compensatory plasticity of reticulospinal axons functionally contribute to the observed spontaneous improvement of stepping performance after incomplete SCI and are at least partially causative to the observed recovery of function, which can also be observed in human patients with spinal hemisection lesions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Following unilateral hemisection of the spinal cord, reticulospinal projections are destroyed on the injured side, resulting in impaired locomotion. Over time, a high degree of recovery can be observed in lesioned animals, like in human hemicord patients. In the rat, recovery is accompanied by pronounced spontaneous plasticity of axotomized and spared reticulospinal axons. We demonstrate the causative relevance of locally rewired as well as compensatory reticulospinal plasticity for the recovery of locomotor functions following spinal hemisection, using chemogenetic tools to selectively silence newly formed connections in behaviorally recovered animals. Moving from a correlative to a causative understanding of the role of neuroanatomical plasticity for functional recovery is fundamental for successful translation of treatment approaches from experimental studies to the clinics. Copyright © 2020 the authors. ISSN:0270-6474 ISSN:1529-2401 |
| اللغة: | English |
| تدمد: | 0270-6474 |
| الوصول الحر: | https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::b22bd9349d29cc246c0545c9a346d84dTest https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/449348Test |
| حقوق: | OPEN |
| رقم الانضمام: | edsair.doi.dedup.....b22bd9349d29cc246c0545c9a346d84d |
| قاعدة البيانات: | OpenAIRE |
| تدمد: | 02706474 |
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