Dataset Information

Fluoxetine treatment promotes functional recovery in a rat model of cervical spinal cord injury.

ABSTRACT: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe condition leading to enduring motor deficits. When lesions are incomplete, promoting spinal cord plasticity might be a useful strategy to elicit functional recovery. Here we investigated whether long-term fluoxetine administration in the drinking water, a treatment recently demonstrated to optimize brain plasticity in several pathological conditions, promotes motor recovery in rats that received a C4 dorsal funiculus crush. We show that fluoxetine administration markedly improved motor functions compared to controls in several behavioral paradigms. The improved functional effects correlated positively with significant sprouting of intact corticospinal fibers and a modulation of the excitation/inhibition balance. Our results suggest a potential application of fluoxetine treatment as a non invasive therapeutic strategy for SCI-associated neuropathologies.

SUBMITTER: Scali M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3713566 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Fluoxetine treatment promotes functional recovery in a rat model of cervical spinal cord injury.

Scali Manuela M Begenisic Tatjana T Mainardi Marco M Milanese Marco M Bonifacino Tiziana T Bonanno Giambattista G Sale Alessandro A Maffei Lamberto L

Scientific reports 20130101

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe condition leading to enduring motor deficits. When lesions are incomplete, promoting spinal cord plasticity might be a useful strategy to elicit functional recovery. Here we investigated whether long-term fluoxetine administration in the drinking water, a treatment recently demonstrated to optimize brain plasticity in several pathological conditions, promotes motor recovery in rats that received a C4 dorsal funiculus crush. We show that fluoxetine administrat ...[more]

PMID: 23860568

Similar Datasets

Project description:The number of elderly patients with spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormalities (SCIWORA) has been increasing in recent years and common of most cervical spinal cord injuries. Basic research has shown the effectiveness of early decompression after spinal cord injury on the spinal cord without stenosis; no studies have reported the efficacy of decompression in models with spinal cord compressive lesions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of decompression surgery after acute spinal cord injury in rats with chronic spinal cord compressive lesions, mimicking SCIWORA. A water-absorbent polymer sheet (Aquaprene DX, Sanyo Chemical Industries) was inserted dorsally into the 4-5th cervical sublaminar space in 8-week-old Sprague Dawley rats to create a rat model with a chronic spinal compressive lesion. At the age of 16 weeks, 30 mildly myelopathic or asymptomatic rats with a Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan score (BBB score) of 19 or higher were subjected to spinal cord compression injuries. The rats were divided into three groups: an immediate decompression group (decompress immediately after injury), a sub-acute decompression group (decompress 1 week after injury), and a non-decompression group. Behavioral and histological evaluations were performed 4 weeks after the injury. At 20 weeks of age, the BBB score and FLS (Forelimb Locomotor Scale) of both the immediate and the sub-acute decompression groups were significantly higher than those of the non-decompression group. There was no significant difference between the immediate decompression group and the sub-acute decompression group. TUNEL (transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling) staining showed significantly fewer positive cells in both decompression groups compared to the non-decompression group. LFB (Luxol fast blue) staining showed significantly more demyelination, and GAP-43 (growth associated protein-43) staining tended to show fewer positive cells in the non-decompression group. Decompression surgery in the acute or sub-acute phase of injury is effective after mild spinal cord injury in rats with chronic compressive lesions. There was no significant difference between the immediate decompression and sub-acute decompression groups.

Dataset Information

Fluoxetine treatment promotes functional recovery in a rat model of cervical spinal cord injury.

Publications

Fluoxetine treatment promotes functional recovery in a rat model of cervical spinal cord injury.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets