Neuronal progenitor transplantation and respiratory outcomes following upper cervical spinal cord injury in adult rats

• Published in: Experimental neurology Vol. 225; no. 1; pp. 231 - 236
• Main Authors: White, Todd E., Lane, Michael A., Sandhu, Milapjit S., O'Steen, Barbara E., Fuller, David D., Reier, Paul J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01-09-2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Age Factors; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Cervical spinal cord injury; Cervical Vertebrae; Disease Models, Animal; Female; Fetal spinal cord; Graft Survival - physiology; Injuries of the nervous system and the skull. Diseases due to physical agents; Medical sciences; Microdissection - methods; Nerve Net - pathology; Nerve Net - physiology; Nerve Net - surgery; Neurology; Phrenic; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Recovery of Function - physiology; Respiratory; Respiratory Paralysis - complications; Respiratory Paralysis - pathology; Respiratory Paralysis - surgery; Spinal Cord - embryology; Spinal Cord - pathology; Spinal Cord - transplantation; Spinal Cord Injuries - complications; Spinal Cord Injuries - pathology; Spinal Cord Injuries - surgery; Stem Cell Transplantation - methods; Stem Cells - pathology; Stem Cells - physiology; Tissue Transplantation - methods; Transplantation; Traumas. Diseases due to physical agents; Ventilation; Cervical spinal cord injury; Rats; Ventilation; Transplantation; Respiratory; Fetal spinal cord; Phrenic; Spinal cord; Nervous system diseases; Prognosis; Rat; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Cervical spinal cord; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Animal; Spinal cord trauma; Central nervous system disease; Spinal cord disease
• ISSN: 0014-4886; 1090-2430
• DOI: 10.1016/j.expneurol.2010.06.006

Despite extensive gray matter loss following spinal cord injury (SCI), little attention has been given to neuronal replacement strategies and their effects on specific functional circuits in the injured spinal cord. In the present study, we assessed breathing behavior and phrenic nerve electrophysiological activity following transplantation of microdissected dorsal or ventral pieces of rat fetal spinal cord tissue (FSC
D or FSC
V, respectively) into acute, cervical (C2) spinal hemisections. Transneuronal tracing demonstrated connectivity between donor neurons from both sources and the host phrenic circuitry. Phrenic nerve recordings revealed differential effects of dorsally vs. ventrally derived neural progenitors on ipsilateral phrenic nerve recovery and activity. These initial results suggest that local gray matter repair can influence motoneuron function in targeted circuits following spinal cord injury and that outcomes will be dependent on the properties and phenotypic fates of the donor cells employed.