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- Title
Enhancing Spinal Plasticity Amplifies the Benefits of Rehabilitative Training and Improves Recovery from Stroke.
- Authors
Wiersma, Anna M.; Fouad, Karim; Winship, Ian R.
- Abstract
The limited recovery that occurs following stroke happens almost entirely in the first weeks postinjury. Moreover, the efficacy of rehabilitative training is limited beyond this narrow time frame. Sprouting of spared corticospinal tract axons in the contralesional spinal cord makes a significant contribution to sensorimotor recovery, but this structural plasticity is also limited to the first few weeks after stroke. Here, we tested the hypothesis that inducing plasticity in the spinal cord during chronic stroke could improve recovery from persistent sensorimotor impairment. We potentiated spinal plasticity during chronic stroke, weeks after the initial ischemic injury, in male Sprague-Dawley rats via intraspinal injections of chondroitinase ABC. Our data show that chondroitinase injections into the contralesional gray matter of the cervical spinal cord administered 28 d after stroke induced significant sprouting of corticospinal axons originating in the peri-infarct cortex. Chondroitinase ABC injection during chronic stroke without additional training resulted in moderate improvements of sensorimotor deficits. Importantly, this therapy dramatically potentiated the efficacy of rehabilitative training delivered during chronic stroke in a skilled forelimb reaching task. These novel data suggest that spinal therapy during chronic stroke can amplify the benefits of delayed rehabilitative training with the potential to reduce permanent disability in stroke survivors.
- Subjects
MATERIAL plasticity; STROKE; AXONS; SENSORIMOTOR cortex; SPRAGUE Dawley rats; CHONDROITINASE
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2017, Vol 37, Issue 45, p10983
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0770-17.2017