spinal cord injury (sci) is a destructive event that often lead to permanent neurologic deficit. current clinical treatments are aimed at preventing secondary damage, promoting regeneration, and replacing destroyed spinal cord tissue, although effective treatments for sci remain limited. cell therapies for treating sci are promising therapy for replacing dead cells, neuroprotection and axon reg...

Recent results have demonstrated complete anatomical and functional repair of descending brainstem-spinal projections in chicken embryos that underwent thoracic spinal cord transection prior to embryonic day 13 (E13) of the 21 d developmental period. To determine to what extent axonal regeneration was contributing to this repair process, we conducted experiments using a double retrograde tract-...

The laboratory mouse has emerged as a primary model organism for studying axon regeneration after experimental spinal cord injury, owing to its genetic amenability. Mutant mouse models are contributing significantly to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of axon regeneration failure in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS), in particular regarding the role of axon-growth in...

The differentiated state of spinal cord ependymal cells in regeneration-competent amphibians varies between a constitutively active state in what is essentially a developing organism, the tadpole of the frog Xenopus laevis, and a quiescent, activatable state in a slowly growing adult salamander Ambystoma mexicanum, the Axolotl. Ependymal cells are epithelial in intact spinal cord of all vertebr...

Introduction: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most serious clinical diseases, which not only affects the patient's physical and mental status, but its effects will be spread to family and community. After severe spinal cord injury, astrocytes of the central nervous system (CNS) become reactive astrocytes, and play the main role of glial scar formation. The scar is a major obstacle to r...

Spinal cord injuries are still a serious problem for regenerative medicine. Previous research has demonstrated that activated microglia accumulate in spinal lesions, influencing the injured tissues in various ways. Therefore, transplantation of activated microglia may have a beneficial role in the regeneration of the nervous system. The present study examined the influence of transplanted activ...

One of the most important factors responsible for axonal degeneration following spinal cord trauma is ischemia produced by cord compression. Previous studies have revealed that omental transposition upon the injured site of the spinal cord could be beneficial in the induction of partial improvement of neuroelectrical and motor function in laboratory animals. The purpose of this study is to...

Embryonic birds and mammals are capable of axon regeneration after spinal cord injury, but this ability is lost during a discrete developmental transition. We recently showed that changes within maturing neurons, as opposed to changes solely in the spinal cord environment, significantly restrict axon regeneration during development. The developmental changes within neurons that limit axon regen...

Seventy days after complete spinal cord transection, both treated and untreated rats showed evidence that some corticospinal axons had regenerated. Rats made immunologically unresponsive to CNS tissue showed no increase in corticospinal regeneration as measured by orthograde axoplasmic flow of tritated proline or retrograde axoplasmic labelling with horeseradish peroxidase. However, treated rat...

long one, dating back to ancient Egypt. Five thousand years of recorded history reveal the chronicles of those who labored to care for victims of this catastrophic injury. In this chapter, advances in the care of spinal cord injury are related in chronological order, from ancient times to the present. In addition, special attention is paid to subjects such as surgery, rehabilitation, education,...