Journal of neuroscience methods
-
J. Neurosci. Methods · Aug 2008
CatWalk gait analysis in assessment of functional recovery after sciatic nerve injury.
Following peripheral nerve injury repair, improved behavioural outcome may be the most important evidence of functionality of axon regeneration after any repair strategy. A range of behavioural testing paradigms have been developed for peripheral nerve injury research. Complete injury of the adult rat sciatic nerve is frequently used in combination with walking track analysis. ⋯ Using the sciatic nerve crush injury model (validated with the static sciatic index) and a follow-up period of 12 weeks, we now show that CatWalk can also measure behavioural recovery. In particular dynamic gait parameters, coordination measures, and the intensity of paw prints are of interest in detecting recovery as far as these parameters completely return to pre-operative values after crush injury. We conclude that CatWalk can be used as a complementary approach to other behavioural testing paradigms to assess clinically relevant behavioural benefits, with a main advantage that CatWalk demonstrates both static and dynamic gait parameters at the same time.