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Article
| Open Access
Functional plasticity of glutamatergic neurons of medullary reticular nuclei after spinal cord injury in mice
Spinal cord injury disrupts the descending command from the brain necessary for locomotion. Here, the authors show the functional plasticity of glutamatergic reticulospinal neurons and how their recruitment can enhance spontaneous motor recovery.
- Maxime Lemieux
- , Narges Karimi
- & Frederic Bretzner
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Article
| Open Access
A case study of percutaneous epidural stimulation to enable motor control in two men after spinal cord injury
Percutaneous spinal cord epidural stimulation (SCES) leads were implanted in two men with spinal cord injury (SCI) in an approved trial by the McGuire IRB committee. SCES decreased the assistance required from the exoskeleton. In one participant, SCES enabled standing and stepping in parallel bars and overground ambulation with a walker.
- Ashraf S. Gorgey
- , Robert Trainer
- & Timothy D. Lavis
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Article
| Open Access
Recruitment of upper-limb motoneurons with epidural electrical stimulation of the cervical spinal cord
The efficacy of epidural electrical stimulation (EES) to engage arm muscles and improve movement after spinal cord injury is still unclear. Here, the authors investigated how EES can recruit upper-limb motor neurons by combining computational modelling with experiments in non-human primates.
- Nathan Greiner
- , Beatrice Barra
- & Marco Capogrosso
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Article
| Open Access
Cardio-centric hemodynamic management improves spinal cord oxygenation and mitigates hemorrhage in acute spinal cord injury
Clinical neuroprotective strategies for acute spinal cord injury (SCI) have largely overlooked the heart. Here the authors show cardiac contractility is immediately impaired in a porcine model of T2 SCI, and cardio-centric treatment with dobutamine optimizes cord oxygenation and mitigates haemorrhage.
- Alexandra M. Williams
- , Neda Manouchehri
- & Christopher R. West
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Article
| Open Access
An injectable hydrogel enhances tissue repair after spinal cord injury by promoting extracellular matrix remodeling
The cystic cavity that develops following injuries to brain or spinal cord is a major obstacle. Here the authors show an injection of imidazole poly(organophosphazenes), a hydrogel with thermosensitive sol–gel transition behavior, almost completely eliminates cystic cavities in a clinically relevant rat spinal cord injury model.
- Le Thi Anh Hong
- , Young-Min Kim
- & Byung Gon Kim
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Article
| Open Access
Genome-wide association study identifies new susceptibility loci for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in Chinese girls
The authors perform a genome-wide association study of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients of Han Chinese descent, and identify 3 new loci for disease susceptibility.
- Zezhang Zhu
- , Nelson Leung-Sang Tang
- & Jack Chun-Yiu Cheng
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A recoverable state of axon injury persists for hours after spinal cord contusion in vivo
A potential therapeutic strategy for spinal cord injury (SCI) is to maintain continuity of damaged axons after contusion, but the viability of such strategies depends on the degree to which initially injured axons can recover. Here the authors use morphological and molecular in vivoimaging after contusion SCI in mice, to show that injured axons persist in a metastable state for hours.
- Philip R. Williams
- , Bogdan-Nicolae Marincu
- & Thomas Misgeld
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Article
| Open Access
Exhaustion of nucleus pulposus progenitor cells with ageing and degeneration of the intervertebral disc
Back pain and sciatica are often caused by intervertebral disc degeneration. Sakai and colleagues identify a subset of nucleus pulposus progenitor cells from the intervertebral disc and show that loss of these progenitor cells correlates with ageing and intervertebral disc degeneration.
- Daisuke Sakai
- , Yoshihiko Nakamura
- & Joji Mochida
Intrathecal delivery of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells in traumatic spinal cord injury: Phase I trial