A reliable spatially normalized template of the human spinal cord — Applications to automated white matter/gray matter segmentation and tensor-based morphometry (TBM) mapping of gray matter alterations occurring with age

NeuroImage ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 117 ◽  
pp. 20-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Taso ◽  
Arnaud Le Troter ◽  
Michaël Sdika ◽  
Julien Cohen-Adad ◽  
Pierre-Jean Arnoux ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Human Spinal Cord

scholarly journals Vascular mechanisms in the pathophysiology of human spinal cord injury

1997 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. E2
Author(s):  
Charles H. Tator ◽  
Izumi Koyanagi
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
White Matter Lesions ◽  
Arterial System ◽  
Secondary Injury ◽  
Human Spinal Cord ◽  
Injury Mechanisms ◽  
Cord Injury

Vascular injury plays an important role in the primary and secondary injury mechanisms that cause damage to the acutely traumatized spinal cord. To understand the pathophysiology of human spinal cord injury, the authors investigated the vascular system in three uninjured human spinal cords using silicone rubber microangiography and analyzed the histological findings related to vascular injury in nine acutely traumatized human spinal cords obtained at autopsy. The interval from spinal cord injury to death ranged from 20 minutes to 9 months. The microangiograms of the uninjured human cervical cords demonstrated new information about the sulcal arterial system and the pial arteries. The centrifugal sulcal arterial system was found to supply all of the anterior gray matter, the anterior half of the posterior gray matter, approximately the inner half of the anterior and lateral white columns, and the anterior half of the posterior white columns. Traumatized spinal cord specimens in the acute stage (3-5 days postinjury) showed severe hemorrhages predominantly in the gray matter, but also in the white matter. The white matter surrounding the hemorrhagic gray matter showed a variety of lesions, including decreased staining, disrupted myelin, and axonal and periaxonal swelling. The white matter lesions extended far from the injury site, especially in the posterior columns. There was no evidence of complete occlusion of any of the larger arteries, including the anterior and posterior spinal arteries and the sulcal arteries. However, occluded intramedullary veins were identified in the degenerated posterior white columns. In the chronic stage (3-9 months postinjury), the injured segments showed major tissue loss with large cavitations, whereas both rostral and caudal remote sites showed well-demarcated necrotic areas indicative of infarction mainly in the posterior white columns. Obstruction of small intramedullary arteries and veins by the initial mechanical stress or secondary injury mechanisms most likely produced these extensive white matter lesions. Our studies implicate damage to the anterior sulcal arteries in causing the hemorrhagic necrosis and subsequent central myelomalacia at the injury site in acute spinal cord injury in humans.

scholarly journals FETAL ANATOMY OF THE HUMAN SPINAL CORD

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
V. Shkolnikov
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Glial Cells ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
The Body ◽  
Diagnostic Methods ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Intrauterine Development ◽  
Human Spinal Cord

Due to the development and improvement of medical technologies and diagnostic methods, in recent years, the interest of neuromorphologists, neuropathologists, neurosurgeons and reproductive specialists in the histogenesis of the structures of the central nervous system, in particular, the spinal cord, has increased. In the process of macro- and microscopic examination of the spinal cord of human fetuses of 20-21 weeks of intrauterine development, the topography of the thickenings in relation to the parts of the spinal column was established according to our own method, the morphometric parameters of the structures of the spinal cord segments and the regularities of cytoarchitectonics were determined. In 20-21 week old fetuses, the ratio of the length of the spine to the parietococcygeal length of the fetus is 65.0%, and the ratio of the length of the spinal cord to the parietococcygeal length of the fetus is 54.0 %. The border between the cervical and thoracic spine is projected onto a conditional line that connects the spine of the scapula. The border between the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine is the line between the upper three quarters and the lower one quarter of the body length. The border between the lumbar and sacral parts runs along a conventionally drawn line that connects the posterior lower iliac spines, and the border of the transition of the sacral to the coccygeal is the level of the lower third of the gluteal region. The structure of the gray matter of the spinal cord segments in this age period corresponds to that in people of mature age – the presence of anterior, lateral and posterior horns. A large area of gray matter is observed in the cervical and lumbar segments, a smaller area in the thoracic and sacral segments. The structuredness of the white matter of the spinal cord segments in this age period corresponds to that in adults – the presence of anterior, lateral and posterior cords. The cervical and lumbar segments have a large area of white matter, and in magnitude they are the same. The nuclei of radial glial cells are relatively equal in size in all segments. The thickness of the matrix layer varies throughout the entire spinal cord, but reaches its greatest size in the ventral parts. The sizes of the nuclei of neuroblasts also fluctuate: the nuclei of motor neurons have large sizes, and the smaller ones are inserted and vegetative. The nuclei of glial cells have relatively identical sizes of different segments of the spinal cord, but 2-3 times less than the nuclei of neuroblasts.

Vascular mechanisms in the pathophysiology of human spinal cord injury

1997 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Tator ◽  
Izumi Koyanagi
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
White Matter Lesions ◽  
Arterial System ◽  
Secondary Injury ◽  
Human Spinal Cord ◽  
Injury Mechanisms ◽  
Cord Injury

✓ Vascular injury plays an important role in the primary and secondary injury mechanisms that cause damage to the acutely traumatized spinal cord. To understand the pathophysiology of human spinal cord injury, the authors investigated the vascular system in three uninjured human spinal cords using silicone rubber microangiography and analyzed the histological findings related to vascular injury in nine acutely traumatized human spinal cords obtained at autopsy. The interval from spinal cord injury to death ranged from 20 minutes to 9 months. The microangiograms of the uninjured human cervical cords demonstrated new information about the sulcal arterial system and the pial arteries. The centrifugal sulcal arterial system was found to supply all of the anterior gray matter, the anterior half of the posterior gray matter, approximately the inner half of the anterior and lateral white columns, and the anterior half of the posterior white columns. Traumatized spinal cord specimens in the acute stage (3–5 days postinjury) showed severe hemorrhages predominantly in the gray matter, but also in the white matter. The white matter surrounding the hemorrhagic gray matter showed a variety of lesions, including decreased staining, disrupted myelin, and axonal and periaxonal swelling. The white matter lesions extended far from the injury site, especially in the posterior columns. There was no evidence of complete occlusion of any of the larger arteries, including the anterior and posterior spinal arteries and the sulcal arteries. However, occluded intramedullary veins were identified in the degenerated posterior white columns. In the chronic stage (3–9 months postinjury), the injured segments showed major tissue loss with large cavitations, whereas both rostral and caudal remote sites showed well-demarcated necrotic areas indicative of infarction mainly in the posterior white columns. Obstruction of small intramedullary arteries and veins by the initial mechanical stress or secondary injury mechanisms most likely produced these extensive white matter lesions. Our studies implicate damage to the anterior sulcal arteries in causing the hemorrhagic necrosis and subsequent central myelomalacia at the injury site in acute spinal cord injury in humans.

scholarly journals What are the gray and white matter volumes of the human spinal cord?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Henmar ◽  
Erik B. Simonsen ◽  
Rune W. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Human Spinal Cord ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
Motor Activities

The gray matter of the spinal cord is the seat of somata of various types of neurons devoted to the sensory and motor activities of the limbs and trunk as well as a part of the autonomic nervous system. The volume of the spinal gray matter is an indicator of the local neuronal processing and this can decrease due to atrophy associated with degenerative diseases and injury. Nevertheless, the absolute volume of the human spinal cord has rarely been reported, if ever. Here, we use high–resolution magnetic resonance imaging, with a cross–sectional resolution of 50 × 50μm2 and a voxel size of 0.0005mm3, to estimate the total gray and white matter volume of a post mortem human female spinal cord. Segregation of gray and white matter was accomplished using deep learning image segmentation. Further, we include data from a male spinal cord of a previously published study. The gray and white matter volumes were found to be 2.87 and 11.33 ml, respectively for the female and 3.55 and 19.33 ml, respectively for a male. The gray and white matter profiles along the vertebral axis were found to be strikingly similar and the volumes of the cervical, thoracic and lumbosacral sections were almost equal.NEW AND NOTEWORTHYHere, we combine high field MRI (9.4T) and deep learning for a post-mortem reconstruction of the gray and white matter in human spinal cords. We report a minuscule total gray matter volume of 2.87 ml for a female and 3.55 ml for a male. For comparison, these volumes correspond approximately to the distal digit of the little finger.

scholarly journals What are the gray and white matter volumes of the human spinal cord?

2020 ◽  
Vol 124 (6) ◽  
pp. 1792-1797
Author(s):  
Simon Henmar ◽  
Erik B. Simonsen ◽  
Rune W. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Deep Learning ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
High Field ◽  
Gray Matter Volume ◽  
Post Mortem ◽  
Human Spinal Cord ◽  
Matter Volume ◽  
Little Finger

Here, we combine high-field MRI (9.4 T) and deep learning for a post mortem reconstruction of the gray and white matter in human spinal cords. We report a minuscule total gray matter volume of 2.87 mL for a female and 3.55 mL for a male. For comparison, these volumes correspond approximately to the distal digit of the little finger.

scholarly journals Upregulation of EphA Receptor Expression in the Injured Adult Rat Spinal Cord

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Willson ◽  
Margarita Irizarry-Ramírez ◽  
Hope E. Gaskins ◽  
Lillian Cruz-Orengo ◽  
Johnny D. Figueroa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Receptor Expression ◽  
Axonal Guidance ◽  
Receptor Subtypes ◽  
Rat Spinal Cord ◽  
Functional Connections ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Epha Receptor

After spinal cord injury (SCI), the inability of supraspinal neurons to regenerate or reform functional connections is likely due to proteins in the surrounding microenvironment restricting regeneration. EphAs are a family of receptor tyrosine kinases that are involved in axonal guidance during development. These receptors and their ligands, the Ephrins, act via repulsive mechanisms to guide growing axons towards their appropriate targets and allow for the correct developmental connections to be made. In the present study, we investigated whether EphA receptor expression changed after a thoracic contusion SCI. Our results indicate that several EphA molecules are upregulated after SCI. Using semiquantitative RT-PCR to investigate mRNA expression after SCI, we found that EphA3, A4, and A7 mRNAs were upregulated. EphA3, A4, A6, and A8 receptor immunoreactivity increased in the ventrolateral white matter (VWM) at the injury epicenter. EphA7 had the highest level of immunoreactivity in both control and injured rat spinal cord. EphA receptor expression in the white matter originated from glial cells as coexpression in both astrocytes and oligodendrocytes was observed. In contrast, gray matter expression was localized to neurons of the ventral gray matter (motor neurons) and dorsal horn. After SCI, specific EphA receptor subtypes are upregulated and these increases may create an environment that is unfavorable for neurite outgrowth and functional regeneration.

Presence and significance of CD-95 (Fas/APO1) expression after spinal cord injury

2001 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mercedes Zurita ◽  
Jesús Vaquero ◽  
Isabel Zurita
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Spinal Cord Tissue ◽  
Injured Spinal Cord ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Positive Immunostaining ◽  
Fine Print

Object. A glycoprotein, CD95 (Fas/APO1) is widely considered to be implicated in the development of apoptosis in a number of tissues. Based on the hypothesis that apoptosis is related to cell death after spinal cord injury (SCI), the authors studied the presence and distribution of CD95 (Fas/APO1)-positive cells in injured spinal cord tissue for the purpose of determining the significance of this protein during the early phases of SCI. Methods. The presence and distribution of cells showing positive immunostaining for CD95 (Fas/APO1) were studied 1, 4, 8, 24, 48, and 72 hours and 1, 2, and 4 weeks after induction of experimental SCI in rats. Studies were conducted using a monoclonal antibody to the CD95 (Fas/APO1) protein. Positivity for CD95 (Fas/APO1) was observed in apoptotic cells, mainly in the gray matter, 1 hour after trauma, and the number of immunostained cells increased for the first 8 hours, at which time the protein was expressed in both gray and white matter. From 24 to 72 hours postinjury, the number of immunostained cells decreased in the gray matter, but increased in the white matter. From then on, there were fewer CD95 (Fas/APO1)-positive cells, but some cells in the white matter still exhibited positive immunostaining 1 and 2 weeks after injury. At 4 weeks, there remained no CD95 (Fas/APO1)-positive cells in injured spinal cord. Conclusions. These findings indicate that CD95 (Fas/APO1) is expressed after SCI, suggesting a role for this protein in the development of apoptosis after trauma and the possibility of a new therapeutic approach to SCI based on blocking the CD95 (Fas/APO1) system.

Effects of Glycine Administration on Canine Experimental Spinal Spasticity and the Levels of Glycine, Glutamate, and Aspartate in the Lumbar Spinal Cord

Neurosurgery ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 152-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. Smith ◽  
P. V. Hall ◽  
M. R. Galvin ◽  
A. R. Jones ◽  
R. L. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Clinical Signs ◽  
Spinal Cord Transection ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Central Gray Matter ◽  
Central Gray ◽  
Lumbar Spinal

Abstract Twelve female mongrel dogs were made paraplegic by midthoracic spinal cord transection. Beginning at 9 weeks posttransection, either glycine (50 mg/kg) or saline was injected intramuscularly each day and the signs of spinal spasticity were assessed clinically. After treating the dogs for 3 weeks, we removed the lumbar enlargement of each dog and microdissected it into gray and white areas which we assayed for glycine, glutamate, and aspartate content. Some of the clinical signs of spasticity improved in the animals injected with glycine compared to the saline-injected controls. The content of glycine was significantly elevated in the central gray matter and ventral medial white matter of the glycinetreated dogs. The levels of glutamate were also significantly elevated in the central, lateral ventral, and medial ventral gray matter and in the dorsal lateral and ventral medial white matter of the glycine-treated dogs. The possible role of these segmental putative neurotransmitters in spinal spasticity is discussed.

Effect of aminophylline and isoproterenol on spinal cord blood flow after impact injury

1980 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 385-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Dow-Edwards ◽  
Vincent DeCrescito ◽  
John J. Tomasula ◽  
Eugene S. Flamm
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Blood Flow ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cord Blood ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Adenosine Monophosphate ◽  
Spinal Cord Blood Flow ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Matter Flow

✓ A study of the effects of spinal cord injury upon spinal cord blood flow was carried out in cats. A 400 gm-cm impact produced an overall reduction in spinal cord blood flow of 24% in the white matter and 30% in the gray matter, as determined by 14C-antipyrine autoradiography. At the level of the injury, white-matter flow was 8.1 ml/100 gm/min, a reduction of 49%, and in the gray matter, 12.5 ml/100 gm/min, a reduction of 76%. Treatment with aminophylline and isoproterenol improved the overall blood flow in the spinal cord. At the level of the injury, white-matter flow after this treatment was no longer significantly different from control values. The gray-matter flow remained decreased to 26.2 ml/100 gm/min, a reduction of only 47%. It is proposed that aminophylline and isoproterenol may increase cyclic adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and prevent platelet aggregation along the endothelial surfaces of the microcirculation, and may thereby help to maintain improved perfusion of the injured spinal cord.

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