Journal of neurotrauma
-
Journal of neurotrauma · May 2014
Environmental enrichment as a viable neurorehabilitation strategy for experimental traumatic brain injury.
Environmental enrichment (EE) emerged as a robust independent variable capable of influencing behavioral outcome in experimental studies after the fortuitous observation by renowned neuropsychologist Donald O. Hebb that rats raised as pets in his home performed markedly better on problem-solving tasks than those kept in the laboratory. In the subsequent years, numerous studies ensued demonstrating that EE was also capable of inducing neuroplasticity in normal (i.e., noninjured) rats. ⋯ Further, the enhancements are observed in male and female as well as adult and pediatric rats and mice. Taken together, these cumulative findings provide strong support for EE as a generalized and robust preclinical model of neurorehabilitation. However, to further enhance the model and to more accurately mimic the clinic, future studies should continue to evaluate EE during more rehabilitation-relevant conditions, such as delayed and shorter time periods, as well as in combination with other therapeutic approaches, as we have been doing for the past few years.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · May 2014
Testosterone dose-dependently prevents bone and muscle loss in rodents following spinal cord injury.
Androgen administration protects against musculoskeletal deficits in models of sex-steroid deficiency and injury/disuse. It remains unknown, however, whether testosterone prevents bone loss accompanying spinal cord injury (SCI), a condition that results in a near universal occurrence of osteoporosis. Our primary purpose was to determine whether testosterone-enanthate (TE) attenuates hindlimb bone loss in a rodent moderate/severe contusion SCI model. ⋯ TE also dose dependently increased prostate mass. Our findings provide the first evidence indicating that high-dose TE fully prevents hindlimb cancellous bone loss and concomitantly ameliorates muscle loss after SCI, while low-dose TE produces much less profound musculoskeletal benefit. Testosterone-induced prostate enlargement, however, represents a potential barrier to the clinical implementation of high-dose TE as a means of preserving musculoskeletal tissue after SCI.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · May 2014
ReviewAmbulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring in Spinal Cord Injury: Clinical Practicability.
Trauma to the spinal cord often results not only in sensorimotor but also autonomic impairments. The loss of autonomic control over the cardiovascular system can cause profound blood pressure (BP) derangements in subjects with spinal cord injury (SCI) and may therefore lead to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in this population. The use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) allows insights into circadian BP profiles, which have been shown to be of good prognostic value for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in able-bodied subjects. ⋯ In addition, several maladaptive anatomical changes within the spinal cord and the periphery, as well as the general decrease of physical daily activity in SCI subjects, account for adverse BP changes. ABPM enables the identification of adverse BP profiles and the associated increased risk for CVD in SCI subjects. Concurrently, it also might provide a useful clinical tool to monitor improvements of AD and lost nocturnal dip after appropriate treatments in the SCI population.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · May 2014
Novel multi-system functional gains via task specific training in spinal cord injured male rats.
Locomotor training (LT) after spinal cord injury (SCI) is a rehabilitative therapy used to enhance locomotor recovery. There is evidence, primarily anecdotal, also associating LT with improvements in bladder function and reduction in some types of SCI-related pain. In the present study, we determined if a step training paradigm could improve outcome measures of locomotion, bladder function, and pain/allodynia. ⋯ Bladder NGF mRNA levels were inversely related to bladder function in the trained group. Monitoring of overground locomotion and neuropathic pain throughout the study revealed significant improvements, beginning after 3 weeks of training, which in both cases remained consistent for the study duration. These novel findings, improving non-locomotor in addition to locomotor functions, demonstrate that step training post-SCI could contribute to multiple quality of life gains, targeting patient-centered high priority deficits.
-
Journal of neurotrauma · May 2014
Gait Analysis at Multiple Speeds Reveals Differential Functional and Structural Outcomes in Response to Graded Spinal Cord Injury.
Open-field behavioral scoring is widely used to assess spinal cord injury (SCI) outcomes, but has limited usefulness in describing subtle changes important for posture and locomotion. Additional quantitative methods are needed to increase the resolution of locomotor outcome assessment. This study used gait analysis at multiple speeds (GAMS) across a range of mild-to-severe intensities of thoracic SCI in the rat. ⋯ Alterations in posture and coordination were correlated to impact severity. GAMS results correlated highly with functional and histological measures and revealed differential relationships between sets of GAMS dynamics and cord total volume loss versus epicenter myelin loss. Automated gait analysis at multiple speeds is therefore a useful tool for quantifying nuanced changes in gait as an extension of histological and observational methods in assessing SCI outcomes.