Early adaptive changes in chronic paraplegic mice: a model to study rapid health degradation after spinal cord injury

Study design: Literature review. Objective: To describe quantitatively some of most important anatomic, systemic, and metabolic changes occurring soon (one month) after spinal cord trauma in mice. Setting: University Laval Medical Center. Results: Significant changes in weight, mechanical and contractile muscle properties, bone histomorphometry and biomechanics, deep-vein morphology, complete blood count, immune cell count, lipid metabolism and anabolic hormone levels were found occurring within 1 month in completely spinal cord transected (Th9/10) mice. Conclusion: These data reveal that many changes in mice and humans are comparable suggesting, in turn, that this model may be a valuable tool for neuroscientists to investigate the specific mechanisms associated with rapid health degradation post-SCI.