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The Beneficial Effects of Treadmill Step Training on Activity-Dependent Synaptic and Cellular Plasticity Markers After Complete Spinal Cord Injury

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Abstract

Several studies have shown that treadmill training improves neurological outcomes and promotes plasticity in lumbar spinal cord of spinal animals. The morphological and biochemical mechanisms underlying these phenomena remain unclear. The purpose of this study was to provide evidence of activity-dependent plasticity in spinal cord segment (L5) below a complete spinal cord transection (SCT) at T8–9 in rats in which the lower spinal cord segments have been fully separated from supraspinal control and that subsequently underwent treadmill step training. Five days after SCT, spinal animals started a step-training program on a treadmill with partial body weight support and manual step help. Hindlimb movements were evaluated over time and scored on the basis of the open-field BBB scale and were significantly improved at post-injury weeks 8 and 10 in trained spinal animals. Treadmill training also showed normalization of withdrawal reflex in trained spinal animals, which was significantly different from the untrained animals at post-injury weeks 8 and 10. Additionally, compared to controls, spinal rats had alpha motoneuronal soma size atrophy and reduced synaptophysin protein expression and Na+, K+-ATPase activity in lumbar spinal cord. Step-trained rats had motoneuronal soma size, synaptophysin expression and Na+, K+-ATPase activity similar to control animals. These findings suggest that treadmill step training can promote activity-dependent neural plasticity in lumbar spinal cord, which may lead to neurological improvements without supraspinal descending control after complete spinal cord injury.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the under graduate students, Carlos C. Abdala and Kamila Kazanowski for their kind assistance with the animal care over the survival period and to Antonio G. Severino for his technical assistance. This work was supported by grants from Brazilian funding agencies: CNPq (Proc. 476880/2007-6 and 470347/2007-4), CAPES and FINEP/Rede IBN 01.06.0842-00.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Neurociências, ICBS, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, R. Sarmento Leite 500, Porto Alegre, RS, 90050-170, Brazil

    Jocemar Ilha, Lígia A. Centenaro, Núbia Broetto Cunha, Patrícia S. do Nascimento, Simone Marcuzzo, Carmem Gottfried & Matilde Achaval

  2. Laboratório de Histofisiologia Comparada, Departamento de Ciências Morfológicas, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Jocemar Ilha, Lígia A. Centenaro, Núbia Broetto Cunha, Mariane Jaeger, Patrícia S. do Nascimento, Simone Marcuzzo & Matilde Achaval

  3. Laboratório de Plasticidade Neuroglial, Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Daniela F. de Souza & Carmem Gottfried

  4. Laboratório de Neuroproteção e Doenças Metabólica, Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Ciências Básicas da Saúde, UFRGS, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Janaína Kolling, Juliana Ben & Angela T. S. Wyse

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  1. Jocemar Ilha
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  2. Lígia A. Centenaro
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Correspondence to Jocemar Ilha.

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Ilha, J., Centenaro, L.A., Broetto Cunha, N. et al. The Beneficial Effects of Treadmill Step Training on Activity-Dependent Synaptic and Cellular Plasticity Markers After Complete Spinal Cord Injury. Neurochem Res 36, 1046–1055 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-011-0446-x

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