F a c u l t y M e n t o r Michelle Tu’s interest in stem cells began when she read about the promise of stem cell research; she was amazed by their unique features, especially their ability to differentiate into any cell type in the body. She was drawn to Professor Keirstead’s study on humanembryonic stem cell-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells in spinal cord injury. Michelle describes he...

Traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCI) are a group of highly debilitating pathologies affecting thousands annually, and adversely quality life. Currently, no fully restorative therapies exist, SCI still results in significant personal, societal financial burdens. Inflammation plays major role the evolution SCI, with myeloid cells, including bone marrow derived macrophages (BMDMs) microglia (MG) b...

The objective of the present study was to identify neurons in the central nervous system that respond to spinal contusion injury in the rat by monitoring the expression of the nuclear protein encoded by the c-fos gene, an activity-dependent gene, in spinal cord and brainstem regions. Rats were anesthetized with urethane and the injury was produced by dropping a 5-g weight from 20.0 cm onto the ...

This study utilized a contusion model of spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats using the standardized NYU-MASCIS impactor, after which oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) derived from human embryonic stem cell (ESC) were transplanted into the spinal cord to study their survival and migration route toward the areas of injury. One critical aspect of successful cell-based SCI therapy is the time of...

The aim is to investigate the analgesic effect of transcranial direct current stimulation(tDCS) on central neuropathic pain(CNP) in spinal cord contusive rat model. Twenty Sprague-Dawley rats(250±50 g, male) were used. Thoracic spinal cord(T10) was contused using New York University(NYU) spinal cord impactor. The animals were randomly assigned to two groups; GroupI: Nontreatment after SCI induc...

GAIN AND LOSS OF FUNCTIONAL LOCOMOTOR RECOVERY FOLLOWING CONTUSIVE SPINAL CORD INJURY IN THE ADULT RAT Krista Layne Caudle November 14,2012 Activity-based rehabilitation in the form of overground or body weightsupported treadmill (BWST) locomotor step training has become the most widely accepted therapy translated from preclinical animal research to spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. However, l...

STUDY DESIGN Animal study. PURPOSE To review the present warning point criteria of the compound muscle action potential (CMAP) and investigate new criteria for spinal surgery safety using an animal model. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Little is known about correlation palesis and amplitude of spinal cord monitoring. METHODS After laminectomy of the tenth thoracic spinal lamina, 2-140 g force was...

background: spinal cord injury (sci) is a major clinical condition and research is commonly done to find suitable treatment options. however, there are some degrees of spontaneous recovery after sci and gender is said to be a contributing factor in recovery, but this is controversial. this study was done to compare the effects of sexual dimorphism on spontaneous recovery after spinal cord injur...

Clinically-relevant animal cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) models are essential for developing and testing potential therapies; however, producing reliable cervical SCI is difficult due to lack of satisfactory methods of vertebral stabilization. The conventional method to stabilize the spine is to suspend the rostral and caudal cervical spine via clamps attached to cervical spinous processes....