Project description:Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to loss of locomotor function. Neuroplasticity of spinal circuitry underlies some functional recovery and therefore represents a therapeutic target to improve locomotor function following SCI. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating neuroplasticity below the lesion level are not fully understood. The present study performed a gene expression profiling in the rat lumbar spinal cord at 1 and 3 weeks after contusive SCI at T9 compared to control rat that received sham injury (laminectomy). The below-level gene expression profiles were compared with those of animals that were subjected to treadmill locomotor training. Rat lumbar spinal cords were taken for the microarray analysis at 1 and 3 weeks after contusive spinal cord injury at the T9 level. Another group of rats received treadmill locomotor training for 3 weeks, and theirs spinal cords were harvested for the microarray. The changes in gene expression after spinal cord injury were analyzed at the two time points. The influence of treadmill locomotor training was evaluated by comparing gene expression profiles between animals with or without treadmill training.
Project description:Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most disabling health problems facing adults today. Locomotor training has been shown to induce substantial recovery in muscle size and muscle function in both transected and contusion injury animal models of SCI. The overall objective of this study is to implement genome wide expression profiling of skeletal muscle to define the molecular pathways associated with muscle remodeling after SCI and during locomotor training (TM). We profiled rat soleus of total 36 samples including controls; 3, 8 and 14 days after SCI; 8 and 14 days after SCI with locomotor treadmill training (TM).
Project description:Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most disabling health problems facing adults today. Locomotor training has been shown to induce substantial recovery in muscle size and muscle function in both transected and contusion injury animal models of SCI. The overall objective of this study is to implement genome wide expression profiling of skeletal muscle to define the molecular pathways associated with muscle remodeling after SCI and during locomotor training (TM).
Project description:Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to loss of locomotor function. Neuroplasticity of spinal circuitry underlies some functional recovery and therefore represents a therapeutic target to improve locomotor function following SCI. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms mediating neuroplasticity below the lesion level are not fully understood. The present study performed a gene expression profiling in the rat lumbar spinal cord at 1 and 3 weeks after contusive SCI at T9. The below-level gene expression profiles were compared with those of animals that were subjected to treadmill locomotor training.
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:To better understand which genes/pathways are activated in injured muscles following a spinal cord injury (SCI) and how these promote the development of neurogenic heterotopic ossification (NHO), we performed gene expression profiling by microarray of muscles in the early phase following muscle injury.
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:T cells undergo autoimmunization following spinal cord injury (SCI) and play both protective and destructive roles during the recovery process. T-cell deficient athymic nude (AN) rats recover better than immunocompetent Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats following spinal cord transection. In the present study, we evaluated locomotor recovery in SD and AN rats following moderate spinal cord contusion. To explain variable locomotor outcome, we assessed whole-genome expression using RNA sequencing, in the acute (1 week post-injury) and chronic (8 weeks post-injury) phases of recovery. AN rats demonstrated greater locomotor function than SD rats only at 1 week post-injury, coinciding with peak T cell infiltration in immunocompetent rats. Genetic markers for T cells and helper T cells were acutely enriched in SD rats, while AN rats expressed genes for Th2 cells, cytotoxic T cells, NK cells, mast cells, IL-1a, and IL-6 at higher levels. Acute enrichment of cell death-related genes suggested that SD rats undergo secondary tissue damage from T cells. Additionally, SD rats exhibited increased acute expression of voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channel-related genes. However, AN rats demonstrated greater chronic expression of cell death-associated genes and less expression of axon-related genes. We put forth a model in which T cells facilitate early tissue damage, demyelination, and Kv channel dysregulation in SD rats following contusion SCI. However, compensatory features of the immune response in AN rats cause delayed tissue death and limit long-term recovery. T cell inhibition combined with other neuroprotective treatment may thus be a promising therapeutic avenue. 2x2 model with 4 groups and 12 total samples. 2 rat strains (athymic nude [AN] and Sprague-Dawley [SD]) and 2 time points (1 week post-injury [acute] and 8 weeks post-injury [chronic]). 3 samples per group, for a total of 12 samples. No technical replicates were performed. Acute SD group = rats 618, 619, and 620. Chronic SD group = rats 605, 606, and 608. Acute AN group = rats 714, 715, and 717. Chronic AN group = rats 707, 712, and 713.
Project description:The goal of this study is to elucidate the influence of treadmill training on transcriptome of the upper lumbar spinal cord after thoracic spinal cord hemisection. mRNA profiles of spinal cords at 23 days-post injury with/without treadmill training were generated. The expression levels of 650 genes in the trained animal were increased ( > 2-fold) compared to untrained animals. Our study represents the detailed analysis of transcriptomes of spinal cord distal to the hemisected lesion after treadmill training, with biologic replicates, generated by RNA-seq technology.
Project description:The goal of this study is to elucidate the influence of treadmill training on transcriptome of the lower lumbar spinal cord after thoracic spinal cord hemisection. mRNA profiles of spinal cords at 23 days-post injury with/without treadmill training were generated. The expression levels of 650 genes in the trained animal were increased ( > 2-fold) compared to untrained animals. Our study represents the detailed analysis of transcriptomes of spinal cord distal to the hemisected lesion after treadmill training, with biologic replicates, generated by RNA-seq technology.