scholarly journals Spinal Cord Injury Causes Reduction of Galanin and Gastrin Releasing Peptide mRNA Expression in the Spinal Ejaculation Generator of Male Rats

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W. Wiggins ◽  
Jonathan E. Sledd ◽  
Lique M. Coolen
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Male Rats ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Gastrin Releasing Peptide ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Contusion Injury ◽  
Spinal Contusion ◽  
Lumbar Spinal ◽  
Injury Causes

Spinal cord injury (SCI) in men is commonly associated with sexual dysfunction, including anejaculation, and chronic mid-thoracic contusion injury in male rats also impairs ejaculatory reflexes. Ejaculation is controlled by a spinal ejaculation generator consisting of a population of lumbar spinothalamic (LSt) neurons that control ejaculation through release of four neuropeptides including galanin and gastrin releasing peptide (GRP) onto lumbar and sacral autonomic and motor nuclei. It was recently demonstrated that spinal contusion injury in male rats caused reduction of GRP-immunoreactivity, but not galanin-immunoreactivity in LSt cells, indicative of reduced GRP peptide levels, but inconclusive results for galanin. The current study further tests the hypothesis that contusion injury causes a disruption of GRP and galanin mRNA in LSt cells. Male rats received mid-thoracic contusion injury and galanin and GRP mRNA were visualized 8 weeks later in the lumbar spinal cord using fluorescent in situ hybridization. Spinal cord injury significantly reduced GRP and galanin mRNA in LSt cells. Galanin expression was higher in LSt cells compared to GRP. However, expression of the two transcripts were positively correlated in LSt cells in both sham and SCI animals, suggesting that expression for the two neuropeptides may be co-regulated. Immunofluorescent visualization of galanin and GRP peptides demonstrated a significant reduction in GRP-immunoreactivity, but not galanin in LSt cells, confirming the previous observations. In conclusion, SCI reduced GRP and galanin expression in LSt cells with an apparent greater impact on GRP peptide levels. GRP and galanin are both essential for triggering ejaculation and thus such reduction may contribute to ejaculatory dysfunction following SCI in rats.

scholarly journals Multi-pronged neuromodulation intervention engages the residual motor circuitry to facilitate walking in a rat model of spinal cord injury

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bonizzato ◽  
Nicholas D. James ◽  
Galyna Pidpruzhnykova ◽  
Natalia Pavlova ◽  
Polina Shkorbatova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Rat Model ◽  
Stress Responses ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Potential Synergy ◽  
Lumbar Spinal ◽  
Deep Brain

AbstractA spinal cord injury usually spares some components of the locomotor circuitry. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the midbrain locomotor region and epidural electrical stimulation of the lumbar spinal cord (EES) are being used to tap into this spared circuitry to enable locomotion in humans with spinal cord injury. While appealing, the potential synergy between DBS and EES remains unknown. Here, we report the synergistic facilitation of locomotion when DBS is combined with EES in a rat model of severe contusion spinal cord injury leading to leg paralysis. However, this synergy requires high amplitudes of DBS, which triggers forced locomotion associated with stress responses. To suppress these undesired responses, we link DBS to the intention to walk, decoded from cortical activity using a robust, rapidly calibrated unsupervised learning algorithm. This contingency amplifies the supraspinal descending command while empowering the rats into volitional walking. However, the resulting improvements may not outweigh the complex technological framework necessary to establish viable therapeutic conditions.

scholarly journals 1H-MRS in spinal cord injury: acute and chronic metabolite alterations in rat brain and lumbar spinal cord

2011 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 678-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Erschbamer ◽  
Johanna Öberg ◽  
Eric Westman ◽  
Rouslan Sitnikov ◽  
Lars Olson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Rat Brain ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
1H Mrs ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Lumbar Spinal

The Effect Of Treadmill Training On Igf-1 Levels In Rat Skeletal Muscle And Lumbar Spinal Cord Following Spinal Cord Injury

2007 ◽  
Vol 39 (Supplement) ◽  
pp. S313
Author(s):  
Min Liu ◽  
Jennifer E. Stevens ◽  
Glenn A. Walter ◽  
Prodip Bose ◽  
Floyd J. Thompson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Skeletal Muscle ◽  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Treadmill Training ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Rat Skeletal Muscle ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Lumbar Spinal

scholarly journals Effects of chronic spinal cord injury on relationships among ion channel and receptor mRNAs in mouse lumbar spinal cord

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia B. Garcia ◽  
Matthew D. Abbinanti ◽  
Ronald M. Harris-Warrick ◽  
David J. Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Ion Channel ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Receptor Expression ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Mrna Levels ◽  
Absolute Quantitation ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Lumbar Spinal

ABSTRACTSpinal cord injury (SCI) causes widespread changes in gene expression of the spinal cord, even in the undamaged spinal cord below the level of the lesion. Less is known about changes in the correlated expression of genes after SCI. We investigated gene co-expression networks among voltage-gated ion channel and neurotransmitter receptor mRNA levels using quantitative RT-PCR in longitudinal slices of the mouse lumbar spinal cord in control and chronic SCI animals. These longitudinal slices were made from the ventral surface of the cord, thus forming slices relatively enriched in motor neurons or interneurons. We performed absolute quantitation of mRNA copy number for 50 ion channel or receptor transcripts from each sample, and used multiple correlation analyses to detect patterns in correlated mRNA levels across all pairs of genes. The majority of channels and receptors changed in expression as a result of chronic SCI, but did so differently across slice levels. Furthermore, motor neuron enriched slices experienced an overall loss of correlated channel and receptor expression, while interneuron slices showed a dramatic increase in the number of positively correlated transcripts. These correlation profiles suggest that spinal cord injury induces distinct changes across cell types in the organization of gene co-expression networks for ion channels and transmitter receptors.

Paraplegia due to thoracic-lumbar spinal cord injury without neuroimaging abnormality

2014 ◽  
Vol 114 (4) ◽  
pp. 343-344
Author(s):  
Dimitri Renard ◽  
Marie-Laure Inghilleri ◽  
Jan Geurts ◽  
Emilie Viollet
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Lumbar Spinal

scholarly journals Spinal stimulation of the upper lumbar spinal cord modulates urethral sphincter activity in rats after spinal cord injury

2015 ◽  
Vol 308 (9) ◽  
pp. F1032-F1040 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edsel M. Abud ◽  
Ronaldo M. Ichiyama ◽  
Leif A. Havton ◽  
Huiyi H. Chang
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Spinal Cord Injury ◽  
Receptor Agonist ◽  
Lumbar Spinal Cord ◽  
Urethral Sphincter ◽  
External Urethral Sphincter ◽  
Cord Injury ◽  
Urethral Resistance ◽  
Serotonergic Receptor ◽  
Lumbar Spinal

After spinal cord injury (SCI), the neurogenic bladder is observed to develop asynchronous bladder and external urethral sphincter (EUS) contractions in a condition known as detrusor-sphincter dyssnergia (DSD). Activation of the EUS spinal controlling center located at the upper lumbar spinal cord may contribute to reduce EUS dyssynergic contractions and decrease urethral resistance during voiding. However, this mechanism has not been well studied. This study aimed at evaluating the effects of epidural stimulation (EpS) over the spinal EUS controlling center (L3) in combination with a serotonergic receptor agonist on EUS relaxation in naive rats and chronic (6–8 wk) T8 SCI rats. Cystometrogram and EUS electromyography (EMG) were obtained before and after the intravenous administration of 5HT-1A receptor agonist and antagonist. The latency, duration, frequency, amplitude, and area under curve of EpS-evoked EUS EMG responses were analyzed. EpS on L3 evoked an inhibition of EUS tonic contraction and an excitation of EUS intermittent bursting/relaxation correlating with urine expulsion in intact rats. Combined with a 5HT-1A receptor agonist, EpS on L3 evoked a similar effect in chronic T8 SCI rats to reduce urethral contraction (resistance). This study examined the effect of facilitating the EUS spinal controlling center to switch between urine storage and voiding phases by using EpS and a serotonergic receptor agonist. This novel approach of applying EpS on the EUS controlling center modulates EUS contraction and relaxation as well as reduces urethral resistance during voiding in chronic SCI rats with DSD.

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