Journal
NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 104, Issue 2, Pages 513-521Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0306-4522(01)00068-9
Keywords
collateral sprouting; spinal cord injury; plasticity
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Collateral sprouting of undamaged descending axons is one potential mechanism for recovery of function after incomplete spinal cord injury. In this study, we have investigated whether terminals of the intact corticospinal tract in the rat would sprout following ablation of a parallel descending pathway, the rubrospinal tract. No sprouting was detected after this injury alone. However, the combination of rubrospinal tract ablation with administration of 100 ng neurotrophin-3 to neurons of the corticospinal tract resulted in marked increased density of corticospinal innervation in the superficial dorsal horn. There was no effect of administration of neurotrophin-3 alone and increase in axon density was not detected in the deep dorsal horn. These results imply that spontaneous sprouting of undamaged corticospinal axons does not occur following ablation of a parallel tract system, although collateral sprouting can be induced through a combination of the lesion plus exogenous growth factor. Induced change in corticospinal terminal density is detected in the superficial dorsal horn only, supporting the hypothesis that this is an area particularly supportive of circuit reorganisation. (C) 2001 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available