Please mind the gap – an update on experimental CNS-PNS bridging efforts in ventral spinal cord.
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1
Uppsala University Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Sweden
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2
Karolinska Institutet, Department of Neuroscience, Sweden
Replantation of avulsed spinal ventral roots has been show to enable significant and useful regrowth of motor axons in both experimental animals and in human clinical cases, making up an interesting exception to the rule of unsuccessful neuronal regeneration in CNS.
The CNS/PNS transitional zone is a region normally relatively scarce of blood vessels, with few capillaries crossing the CNS/PNS border, where lesions are followed by upregulation of vascular growth factors and angiogenesis. We investigate the vascular supply to this area after ventral root avulsion and replantation and can show an increased number of capillaries in the CNS/PNS transitional zone and in addition that these capillaries overgrow the CNS/PNS border. We do also show that astrocytes in this scar area are organized alongside the blood vessels typically in a cone shaped fashion. Furthermore can we show that neurites do regrow from the spinal cord ventral horn, through the scar tissue and out into the ventral roots and that these regrowing axons are organized alongside astrocytes and blood vessels.
We also analyze the acute response to ventral root avulsion and replantation in adult rats with gene arrays in combination with cluster analysis of gene ontology search terms and can show significant differences between rats subjected to ventral replantation compared to avulsion only. The number of genes related to cell death is similar in the two models after 24 hours, but a significantly larger number of genes related to neurite growth and development are regulated in rats treated with ventral root replantation, possibly reflecting intrinsic neuroregenerative capacity in the replantation model. In addition, regulation of genes related to synaptic transmission were much more pronounced after replantation than after avulsion without replantation. These data indicate that the axonal regenerative response from replantation is initiated at an earlier stage than differences in terms of neuron survival. An analysis such as this could possibly facilitate the comparison of the regenerative response in different kind of neurotraumatic injuries.
Keywords:
astrocyte,
blood vessel,
Gene array,
gene ontology,
motoneuron,
neurite growth,
spinal cord injury,
transitional zone
Conference:
Karolinska Institutet 200 years anniversary
Symposium on Traumatic Injuries in the Nervous System, Stockholm, Sweden, 15 Sep - 16 Sep, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Presentation
Topic:
Traumatic Injuries in the Nervous System
Citation:
K. Sköld
M
(2010). Please mind the gap – an update on experimental CNS-PNS bridging efforts in ventral spinal cord..
Front. Neurol.
Conference Abstract:
Karolinska Institutet 200 years anniversary
Symposium on Traumatic Injuries in the Nervous System.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fneur.2010.56.00013
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Received:
07 Sep 2010;
Published Online:
21 Sep 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Mattias K. Sköld, Uppsala University Hospital, Department of Neurosurgery, Uppsala, Sweden, mattias.skold@ki.se