scholarly journals Acute Cellular and Functional Changes With a Combinatorial Treatment of Ion Channel Inhibitors Following Spinal Cord Injury

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan L. O’Hare Doig ◽  
Sreya Santhakumar ◽  
Brooke Fehily ◽  
Sushmitha Raja ◽  
Tanya Solomon ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Antonino Casabona ◽  
Maria Stella Valle ◽  
Claudio Dominante ◽  
Luca Laudani ◽  
Maria Pia Onesta ◽  
...  

The benefits of functional electrical stimulation during cycling (FES-cycling) have been ascertained following spinal cord injury. The instrumented pendulum test was applied to chronic paraplegic patients to investigate the effects of FES-cycling of different duration (20-min vs. 40-min) on biomechanical and electromyographic characterization of knee mobility. Seven adults with post-traumatic paraplegia attended two FES-cycling sessions, a 20-min and a 40-min one, in a random order. Knee angular excursion, stiffness and viscosity were measured using the pendulum test before and after each session. Surface electromyographic activity was recorded from the rectus femoris (RF) and biceps femoris (BF) muscles. FES-cycling led to reduced excursion (p < 0.001) and increased stiffness (p = 0.005) of the knee, which was more evident after the 20-min than 40-min session. Noteworthy, biomechanical changes were associated with an increase of muscle activity and changes in latency of muscle activity only for 20-min, with anticipated response times for RF (p < 0.001) and delayed responses for BF (p = 0.033). These results indicate that significant functional changes in knee mobility can be achieved by FES-cycling for 20 min, as evaluated by the pendulum test in patients with chronic paraplegia. The observed muscle behaviour suggests modulatory effects of exercise on spinal network aimed to partially restore automatic neuronal processes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 100 (6) ◽  
pp. 946-962
Author(s):  
Thomas Osinski ◽  
Sessi Acapo ◽  
Djamel Bensmail ◽  
Didier Bouhassira ◽  
Valéria Martinez

Abstract Background Pain is one of the main symptoms associated with spinal cord injury (SCI) and can be associated with changes to the central nervous system (CNS). Purpose This article provides an overview of the evidence relating to CNS changes (structural and functional) associated with pain in SCIs. Data Sources A systematic review was performed, according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) recommendations, on PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science in March 2018. Study Selection Studies were selected if they concerned changes in the CNS of patients with SCI, regardless of the type of imagery. Data Extraction Data were extracted by 2 blinded reviewers. Data Synthesis There is moderate evidence for impaired electroencephalographic function and metabolic abnormalities in the anterior cingulate in patients experiencing pain. There is preliminary evidence that patients with pain have morphological and functional changes to the somatosensory cortex and alterations to thalamic metabolism. There are conflicting data regarding the relationships between lesion characteristics and pain. In contrast, patients without pain can display protective neuroplasticity. Limitations and Conclusion Further studies are required to elucidate fully the relationships between pain and neuroplasticity in patients with SCIs. However, current evidence might support the use of physical therapist treatments targeting CNS plasticity in patients with SCI pain.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanshan Tang ◽  
Carlos A. Cuellar ◽  
Pengfei Song ◽  
Riazul Islam ◽  
Chengwu Huang ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this study functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging has been implemented to explore the local hemodynamic response induced by electrical epidural stimulation and to study real-time in vivo functional changes of the spinal cord, taking advantage of the superior spatiotemporal resolution provided by fUS. By quantifying the hemodynamic and electromyographic response features, we tested the hypothesis that the transient hemodynamic response of the spinal cord to electrical epidural stimulation could reflect modulation of the spinal circuitry and accordingly respond to the changes in parameters of electrical stimulation. The results of this study for the first time demonstrate that the hemodynamic response to electrical stimulation could reflect functional organization of the spinal cord. Response in the dorsal areas to epidural stimulation was significantly higher and faster compared to the response in ventral spinal cord. Positive relation between the hemodynamic and the EMG responses was observed at the lower frequencies of epidural stimulation (20 and 40 Hz), which according to our previous findings can facilitate spinal circuitry after spinal cord injury, compared to higher frequencies (200 and 500 Hz). These findings suggest that different mechanisms could be involved in spinal cord hemodynamic changes during different parameters of electrical stimulation and for the first time provide the evidence that functional organization of the spinal cord circuitry could be related to specific organization of spinal cord vasculature and hemodynamic.Significance StatementElectrical epidural stimulation (EES) has been successfully applied to control chronic refractory pain and was evolved to alleviate motor impairment after spinal cord injury, in Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological conditions. The mechanisms underlying the EES remain unclear, and current methods for monitoring EES are limited in sensitivity and spatiotemporal resolutions to evaluate functional changes in response to EES. We tested the hypothesis that the transient hemodynamic response of the spinal cord to EES could reflect modulation of the spinal cord circuitry and accordingly respond to the changes in parameters of EES. The proposed methodology opens a new direction for quantitative evaluation of the spinal cord hemodynamic in understanding the mechanisms of spinal cord functional organization and effect of neuromodulation.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia B. Garcia ◽  
Matthew D. Abbinanti ◽  
Ronald M. Harris-Warrick ◽  
David J. Schulz

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.


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