Project description:Summary: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a damage to the spinal cord induced by trauma or disease resulting in a loss of mobility or feeling. SCI is characterized by a primary mechanical injury followed by a secondary injury in which several molecular events are altered in the spinal cord often resulting in loss of neuronal function. Analysis of the areas directly (spinal cord) and indirectly (raphe and sensorimotor cortex) affected by injury will help understanding mechanisms of SCI. Hypothesis: Areas of the brain primarily affected by spinal cord injury are the Raphe and the Sensorimotor cortex thus gene expression profiling these two areas might contribute understanding the mechanisms of spinal cord injury. Specific Aim: The project aims at finding significantly altered genes in the Raphe and Sensorimotor cortex following an induced moderate spinal cord injury in T9.
Project description:Adult zebrafish have the ability to recover from spinal cord injury and exhibit re-growth of descending axons from the brainstem to the spinal cord. We performed gene expression analysis using microarray to find damage-induced genes after spinal cord injury, which shows that Sox11b mRNA is up-regulated at 11 days after injury. However, the functional relevance of Sox11b for regeneration is not known. Here, we report that the up-regulation of Sox11b mRNA after spinal cord injury is mainly localized in ependymal cells lining the central canal and in newly differentiating neuronal precursors or immature neurons. Using an in vivo morpholino-based gene knockout approach, we demonstrate that Sox11b is essential for locomotor recovery after spinal cord injury. In the injured spinal cord, expression of the neural stem cell associated gene, Nestin, and the proneural gene Ascl1a (Mash1a), which are involved in the self-renewal and cell fate specification of endogenous neural stem cells, respectively, is regulated by Sox11b. Our data indicate that Sox11b promotes neuronal determination of endogenous stem cells and regenerative neurogenesis after spinal cord injury in the adult zebrafish. Enhancing Sox11b expression to promote proliferation and neurogenic determination of endogenous neural stem cells after injury may be a promising strategy in restorative therapy after spinal cord injury in mammals. Spinal cord injury or control sham injury was performed on adult zebrafish. After 4, 12, or 264 hrs, a 5 mm segment of spinal cord was dissected and processed (as a pool from 5 animals) in three replicate groups for each time point and treatment.
Project description:In homeostasis, because of the blood-brain barrier, immune cells rarely infiltrate the central nervous system (CNS). However, after spinal cord injury (SCI), many cells, including both myeloid and T cells, infiltrate the spinal cord. However, the role immune cells play in SCI remains controversial. We are curious whether after SCI there are self-peptides that are released and sensed by T cells that then modulate response to CNS injury.
Project description:Summary: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a damage to the spinal cord induced by trauma or disease resulting in a loss of mobility or feeling. SCI is characterized by a primary mechanical injury followed by a secondary injury in which several molecular events are altered in the spinal cord often resulting in loss of neuronal function. Hypothesis: Spinal cord injury (SCI) induces a cascade of molecular events including the activation of genes associated with transcription factors, inflammation, oxidative stress, ionic imbalance, apoptosis and neuroregeneration which suggests the existance of endogenous reparative attempts. However, not all mechanisms following SCI are well known. Specific Aim: The goal of this project is to analyze the molecular events following spinal cord injury 1 cm above, below, and at the site of injury (T9), aiming at finding potential new targets to improve recovery and therapy.
Project description:Summary: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a damage to the spinal cord induced by trauma or disease resulting in a loss of mobility or feeling. SCI is characterized by a primary mechanical injury followed by a secondary injury in which several molecular events are altered in the spinal cord often resulting in loss of neuronal function. Analysis of the areas directly (spinal cord) and indirectly (raphe and sensorimotor cortex) affected by injury will help understanding mechanisms of SCI. Hypothesis: Areas of the brain primarily affected by spinal cord injury are the Raphe and the Sensorimotor cortex thus gene expression profiling these two areas might contribute understanding the mechanisms of spinal cord injury. Specific Aim: The project aims at finding significantly altered genes in the Raphe and Sensorimotor cortex following an induced moderate spinal cord injury in T9. Keywords: other
Project description:We conducted snRNAseq of mouse astrocytes after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). These data reveal transcriptomic similarities and differences among astrocytes in healthy spinal cord and after spinal cord injury.
Project description:The aneurysm clip impact-compression model of spinal cord injury (SCI) in animals mimics the primary mechanism of SCI in human, i.e. acute impact and persisting compression; and its histo-pathological and behavioural outcomes are extensively similar to the human SCI. In order to understand the distinct molecular events underlying this injury model, an analysis of global gene expression of the acute, subacute and chronic stages of a moderate to severe injury to the rat spinal cord was conducted using a microarray gene chip approach. Rat thoracic spinal cord (T7) was injured using aneurysm clip impact-compression injury model and the epicenter area of injured spinal cord was isolated for RNA extraction and processing and hybridization on Affymetrix GeneChip arrays.