Excitability changes in the sciatic nerve and triceps surae muscle after spinal cord injury in mice

Zaghloul Ahmed1,2, Robert Freedland2, Andrzej Wieraszko2,3
1Department of Physical Therapy, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, Staten Island, USA
2CSI/IBR Center for Developmental Neuroscience, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, Staten Island, USA
3The Department of Biology, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, Staten Island, USA

Tóm tắt

From the onset to the chronic phase of spinal cord injury (SCI), peripheral axons and muscles are subjected to abnormal states of activity. This starts with very intense spasms during the first instant of SCI, through a no activity flaccidity phase, to a chronic hyperactivity phase. It remains unclear how the nature of this sequence may affect the peripheral axons and muscles. We set out to investigate the changes in excitability of the sciatic nerve and to characterize the properties of muscle contractility after contusive injury of the mouse thoracic spinal cord. The following changes were observed in animals after SCI: 1) The sciatic nerve compound action potential was of higher amplitudes and lower threshold, with the longer strength-duration time constant and faster conduction velocity; 2) The latency of the onset of muscle contraction of the triceps surae muscle was significantly shorter in animals with SCI; 3) The muscle twitches expressed slower rising and falling slopes, which were accompanied by prolonged contraction duration in SCI animals compared to controls. These findings suggest that in peripheral nerves SCI promotes hyperexcitability, which might contribute to mechanisms of spastic syndrome.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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