Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
2
pubmed:dateCreated
1998-2-3
pubmed:abstractText
Cervical spinal cord injury at birth permanently disrupts forelimb function in goal-directed reaching. Transplants of fetal spinal cord tissue permit the development of skilled forelimb use and associated postural adjustments (, companion article). The aim of this study was to determine whether transplants of fetal spinal cord tissue support the remodeling of supraspinal and segmental pathways that may underlie recovery of postural reflexes and forelimb movements. Although brainstem-spinal and segmental projections to the cervical spinal cord are present at birth, skilled forelimb reaching has not yet developed. Three-day-old rats received a cervical spinal cord overhemisection with or without transplantation of fetal spinal cord tissue (embryonic day 14); unoperated pups served as normal controls. Neuroanatomical tracing techniques were used to examine the organization of CNS pathways that may influence target-directed reaching. In animals with hemisections only, corticospinal, brainstem-spinal, and dorsal root projections within the spinal cord were decreased in number and extent. In contrast, animals receiving hemisections plus transplants exhibited growth of these projections throughout the transplant and over long distances within the host spinal cord caudal to the transplant. Raphespinal axons were apposed to numerous propriospinal neurons in control and transplant animals; these associations were greatly reduced in the lesion-only animals. These observations suggest that after neonatal cervical spinal cord injury, embryonic transplants support axonal growth of CNS pathways and specifically supraspinal input to propriospinal neurons. We suggest that after neonatal spinal injury in the rat, the transplant-mediated reestablishment of supraspinal input to spinal circuitry is the mechanism underlying the development of target-directed reaching and associated postural adjustments.
pubmed:grant
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Jan
pubmed:issn
0270-6474
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:day
15
pubmed:volume
18
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
779-93
pubmed:dateRevised
2007-11-14
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1998
pubmed:articleTitle
Fetal spinal cord transplants support growth of supraspinal and segmental projections after cervical spinal cord hemisection in the neonatal rat.
pubmed:affiliation
Department of Cell Biology, Division of Neurobiology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C. 20007, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.