Phrenic Motor Neuron Survival Below a Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Locomotion and Motor Neuron Plasticity after Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury

Neurobiology of Disease Overexpression of the Astrocyte Glutamate Transporter GLT1 Exacerbates Phrenic Motor Neuron Degeneration, Diaphragm Compromise, and Forelimb Motor Dysfunction following Cervical Contusion Spinal Cord Injury

Ke Li,1* Charles Nicaise,1,2* Daniel Sannie,1 X Tamara J. Hala,1 Elham Javed,1 Jessica L. Parker,1 Rajarshi Putatunda,1 Kathleen A. Regan,1 Valérie Suain,3 Jean-Pierre Brion,3 Fred Rhoderick,4 Megan C. Wright,5 David J. Poulsen,4 and Angelo C. Lepore1 1Department of Neuroscience, Farber Institute for Neurosciences, Thomas Jefferson University Medical College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19107, 2...

Overexpression of the astrocyte glutamate transporter GLT1 exacerbates phrenic motor neuron degeneration, diaphragm compromise, and forelimb motor dysfunction following cervical contusion spinal cord injury.

A major portion of spinal cord injury (SCI) cases affect midcervical levels, the location of the phrenic motor neuron (PhMN) pool that innervates the diaphragm. While initial trauma is uncontrollable, a valuable opportunity exists in the hours to days following SCI for preventing PhMN loss and consequent respiratory dysfunction that occurs during secondary degeneration. One of the primary cause...

Repair of Spinal Cord Injury by Co-Transplantation of embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Motor Neuron and Olfactory Ensheathing Cell

Background: The failure of regeneration after spinal cord injury (SCI) has been attributed to axonal demyelination and neuronal death. Cellular replacement and white matter regeneration are both necessary for SCI repair. In this study, we evaluated the co-transplantation of olfactory ensheathing cells (OEC) and embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived motor neurons (ESMN) on contused SCI. Methods: OEC...

Synaptic pathways to phrenic motoneurons are enhanced by chronic intermittent hypoxia after cervical spinal cord injury.

Spinal hemisection at C2 reveals caudal synaptic pathways that cross the spinal midline (crossed phrenic pathways) and can restore inspiratory activity in ipsilateral phrenic motoneurons. Intermittent hypoxia induces plasticity in the cervical spinal cord, resulting in enhanced inspiratory phrenic motor output. We hypothesized that chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) (alternating 11% O(2) and ai...