scholarly journals Developmental morphometry and allometry of spinal cord

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
Maya S. ◽  
Sreeranjini A. R. ◽  
Leena C. ◽  
Sunilkumar N.S. ◽  
Irshad A.

In mammals, the spinal cord forms a long, roughly cylindrical structure with cervical and lumbar enlargements. It is anchored in the vertebral canal, enclosed by meninges. The cord is protected by the epidural fat and terminates as the conus medullaris, which varied in level at different stages of gestation. The weight and length of the cord have a significant correlation in between them and with age, body weight, CRL, and vertebral column length and other body parameters. All cord segments did not correspond to the corresponding vertebrae. Initially, the spinal cord extended the entire length of the vertebral canal. Later it loose its correspondence with vertebral segments as gestation proceeds.

1988 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 729 ◽  
Author(s):  
BJ McDonald ◽  
PK O'Rourke ◽  
JA Connell ◽  
WA Hoey

The prenatal development of the conceptus in the Australian feral goat (Capra hircus) was studied in 47 does containing 89 fetuses of known gestational age. Quantification of the growth of the fetus allowed the development of a number of predictors of fetal age. The effect of age of fetus was highly significant for the variables body weight, crown-rump straight and curved length, vertebral column length, thorax circumference, forelimb length and hindlimb length (P < 0.01). A quadratic response curve using loge of fetal age accounts for most of the variation in the log, of each fetal measurement (R2 = 0.991 to 0.995). The prenatal growth of these fetal parameters was partitioned using the regressions. There was little difference between the relative growth of crown-rump straight and curved length, vertebral column length and the thorax circumference over the trimesters of gestation. Growth of the limbs tended to be greater in the third trimester when compared with the former parameters. As might be expected from work in other species, 79% of the growth in fetal body weight occurred in the last trimester, and this exceeded the relative growth of all other characters during this period. There was marked (P < 0.01) increase in the weight of the empty uterus up to day 95, after which no change occurred.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 1485-1489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cornelia Laule ◽  
Andrew Yung ◽  
Vlady Pavolva ◽  
Barry Bohnet ◽  
Piotr Kozlowski ◽  
...  

Background: Loss of myelin in the spinal cord in multiple sclerosis (MS) is likely an important, and early, contributor to atrophy and associated disability. In vivo measurement of myelin is possible using myelin water fraction (MWF) imaging, but MWF has never been assessed in MS along the entire length of the spinal cord in vivo or in post-mortem tissue. Objective: To assess the feasibility of measuring the distribution of MWF along the entire length of the spinal cord in post-mortem MS tissue using high-field MRI. Methods: One formalin-fixed spinal cord from a female with secondary progressive MS (age: 78 years, disease duration: 25 years) was cut into 104 5-mm-thick cross sections along the entire length of the spinal cord from the cervico-medullary junction to the conus medullaris and imaged using a 64 echo T2 relaxation experiment at 7T. Results: Myelin water maps showed cord anatomy in superb detail, white matter demonstrating a higher MWF than the grey matter. Anatomical variation in myelin distribution along cervical, thoracic and lumbar regions was observed. Lesions demonstrated myelin loss. Conclusion: Post-mortem myelin water imaging of formalin-fixed MS spinal cord is feasible.


Author(s):  
Martin E. Atkinson

It is important to have a picture of the relationship of the brain and spinal cord to the bones of the skull and vertebral column that house and protect them and the protective layers of connective tissues known as the meninges that cover the CNS; these lie between the bones and brain and spinal cord. The brain is housed within the skull which will be described in much more detail in Section 4 . As you can appreciate by feeling your own skull, the top, front, sides, and back are smoothly curved. The surface of the brain is similarly curved and conforms to the shape of the bones. Note that, in reality, it is really the other way round—brain shape determines the shape of the bones of the skull vault forming the braincase. If the top of the braincase and the brain are removed to reveal the floor of the cranial cavity formed by the bones of the cranial base, it is anything but smooth. Viewed from the lateral aspect and going from anterior to posterior, it is like three descending steps. This structure is shown diagrammatically in Figure 15.1 and shows how different parts of the brain conform to these steps. The first step lies above the nasal and orbital cavities and is known as the anterior cranial fossa ; it houses the frontal lobes of the cerebral hemispheres. The second step is the middle cranial fossa and contains the temporal lobes of each cerebral hemisphere laterally and the midbrain and pons medially. The final step is the posterior cranial fossa where the rest of the brainstem and cerebellum lie. The floor of the posterior fossa is pierced by the foramen magnum through which the medulla oblongata and spinal cord become continuous. The spinal cord occupies the vertebral canal running in the vertebral column. As you can see in Figure 3.5 , in adults, the cord occupies the vertebral canal from the upper border of the first cervical vertebra, the atlas, down to the level of the disc between the first and second lumbar vertebrae.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 15-19
Author(s):  
Ivona Orgonikova ◽  
Josep Brocal ◽  
Giunio Bruto Cherubini ◽  
Viktor Palus

Assessing the presence of vertebral column instability is essential in animals with vertebral fractures or luxations. Spinal instability is most commonly assessed using a three-compartment model and unstable vertebral fractures and luxations require surgical stabilisation. In cases of compression of the spinal cord (by haematoma, traumatic intervertebral disc extrusion or bone fragment), decompression surgery is necessary. Prompt surgery prevents additional spinal cord damage, but the overall condition of the patient, including any concurrent injuries, needs to be continually kept in mind. The vertebral column can be stabilised using multiple techniques, such as screws, pins, polymethylmetacrylate and plating techniques, as well as external stabilisation and spinal stapling. Complications of spinal surgeries include haemorrhage, infection, neurological deterioration, particularly in cases of spinal stabilisations, implant loosening and failure.


Neurosurgery ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 58 (6) ◽  
pp. 1081-1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Sinclair ◽  
Steven D. Chang ◽  
Iris C. Gibbs ◽  
John R. Adler

Abstract OBJECTIVE: Intramedullary spinal cord arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) have an unfavorable natural history that characteristically involves myelopathy secondary to progressive ischemia and/or recurrent hemorrhage. Although some lesions can be managed successfully with embolization and surgery, AVM size, location, and angioarchitecture precludes treatment in many circumstances. Given the poor outlook for such patients, and building on the successful experience with radiosurgical ablation of cerebral AVMs, our group at Stanford University has used CyberKnife (Accuray, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA) stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) to treat selected spinal cord AVMs since 1997. In this article, we retrospectively analyze our preliminary experience with this technique. METHODS: Fifteen patients with intramedullary spinal cord AVMs (nine cervical, three thoracic, and three conus medullaris) were treated by image-guided SRS between 1997 and 2005. SRS was delivered in two to five sessions with an average marginal dose of 20.5 Gy. The biologically effective dose used in individual patients was escalated gradually over the course of this study. Clinical and magnetic resonance imaging follow-up were carried out annually, and spinal angiography was repeated at 3 years. RESULTS: After a mean follow-up period of 27.9 months (range, 3–59 mo), six of the seven patients who were more than 3 years from SRS had significant reductions in AVM volumes on interim magnetic resonance imaging examinations. In four of the five patients who underwent postoperative spinal angiography, persistent AVM was confirmed, albeit reduced in size. One patient demonstrated complete angiographic obliteration of a conus medullaris AVM 26 months after radiosurgery. There was no evidence of further hemorrhage after CyberKnife treatment or neurological deterioration attributable to SRS. CONCLUSION: This description of CyberKnife radiosurgical ablation demonstrates its feasibility and apparent safety for selected intramedullary spinal cord AVMs. Additional experience is necessary to ascertain the optimal radiosurgical dose and ultimate efficacy of this technique.


Spinal Cord ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 811-820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahar Sabaghian ◽  
Hamed Dehghani ◽  
Seyed Amir Hossein Batouli ◽  
Ali Khatibi ◽  
Mohammad Ali Oghabian

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samira Ahmadvand Koohsari ◽  
Abdorrahim Absalan ◽  
Davood Azadi

AbstractThe therapeutic effects of mesenchymal stem cells-extracellular vesicles have been proved in many inflammatory animal models. In the current study, we aimed to investigate the effect of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from human umbilical cord-MSC (hUCSC-EV) on the clinical score and inflammatory/anti-inflammatory cytokines on the EAE mouse model. After induction of EAE in C57Bl/6 mice, they were treated intravenously with hUCSC-EV or vehicle. The clinical score and body weight of all mice was registered every day. On day 30, mice were sacrificed and splenocytes were isolated for cytokine assay by ELISA. Cytokine expression of pro-/anti-inflammatory cytokine by real-time PCR, leukocyte infiltration by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining, and the percent of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and myelin basic protein (MBP) positive cells by immunohistochemistry were assessed in the spinal cord. Our results showed that hUCSC-EV-treated mice have lower maximum mean clinical score (MMCS), pro-inflammatory cytokines, and inflammatory score in comparison to the control mice. We also showed that hUCSC-EV administration significantly improved body weight and increased the anti-inflammatory cytokines and the frequency of Treg cells in the spleen. There was no significant difference in the percent of GFAP and MBP positive cells in the spinal cord of experimental groups. Finally, we suggest that intravenous administration of hUCSC-EV alleviate induce-EAE by reducing the pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-17a, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, and increasing the anti-inflammatory cytokines, IL-4 and IL-10, and also decrease the leukocyte infiltration in a model of MS. It seems that EVs from hUC-MSCs have the same therapeutic effects similar to EVs from other sources of MSCs, such as adipose or bone marrow MSCs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document