Neurorehabilitation and neural repair
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Nov 2009
Effect of treadmill training on autonomic dysreflexia in spinal cord--injured rats.
Weight-supported treadmill training is an emerging rehabilitation method used to improve locomotor ability in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, little research has been undertaken to test the effect of such training on other consequences of SCI, such as neuropathic pain and autonomic dysfunction. ⋯ These results suggest that treadmill training exaggerated AD responses perhaps through a combination of enhanced vascular reactivity and central plasticity.
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Nov 2009
Brainstem reflexes are enhanced following severe spinal cord injury and reduced by continuous intrathecal baclofen.
Plastic changes in the human central nervous system can occur at multiple levels, including circuits rostral to the lesion level in spinal cord injury (SCI). GABA is the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. The authors hypothesized that one of the consequences of plasticity in SCI patients could be enhancement of brainstem reflexes, and they investigated the effect of continuous intrathecal baclofen (CITB) on such enhancement. ⋯ The enhancement of brainstem reflexes in SCI patients may be due to plastic changes at the brainstem level after SCI. The significant reduction in response size in patients with CITB in comparison with patients without baclofen suggests that the enhancement of brainstem reflexes may be due to decreased GABAergic activity and that CITB is effective in reducing abnormal brainstem hyperexcitability.
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Neurorehabil Neural Repair · Nov 2009
The neural stem cell line CTX0E03 promotes behavioral recovery and endogenous neurogenesis after experimental stroke in a dose-dependent fashion.
This study investigated behavioral recovery in rats following implanting increasing doses of CTX0E03 cells into the putamen ipsilateral to the stroke damage. Postmortem histological analysis investigated possible mechanisms of behavioral recovery. ⋯ . This study found that the implantation of CTX0E03 human neural stem cells in rats after MCAO stroke promoted significant behavioral recovery depending on cell dose. The authors propose a paracrine trophic mechanism, which is triggered early after CTX0E03 cell implantation, and which in turn targets restoration of neurogenesis in the SVZ of MCAO rats.