Impact of Anti-Inflammatory Medication on Task-Specific Training Efficacy and Functional Recovery After Unilateral Dorsal Quadrant C4 Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in Female Lewis Rats

DOI:10.34945/F57W2G

DATASET CITATION

Cucarian J. Daniel., Raposo P., Nguyen A., Vavrek R., Torres-Espin A., Fouad K. (2023) Impact of Anti-Inflammatory Medication on Task-Specific Training Efficacy and Functional Recovery After Unilateral Dorsal Quadrant C4 Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in Female Lewis Rats. Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury. ODC-SCI:955 http://doi.org/10.34945/F57W2G

ABSTRACT

STUDY PURPOSE: After spinal cord injury, inflammation is involved in secondary tissue damage. However, it may also promote neuroplasticity. We have shown earlier that promoting inflammation in a chronic setting in rats can promote the efficacy of rehabilitative training in a reaching task. Here we wanted to test whether the opposite is also true. Would common anti-inflammatory medications that could be given for any reason in later stages of a spinal lesion affect the efficacy of rehabilitative training in rats with unilateral incomplete cervical spinal cord injuries.

DATA COLLECTED: This experiment involved two experimental cohorts, with a total of fifty-three age-matched adult female Lewis rats (cohort 1: n=29, cohort 2: n=24). The rats underwent training in a single pellet grasping (SPG) task for 5 weeks before receiving a C4 dorsolateral quadrant transection. Afterwards, the rats were randomized into groups: In the first cohort, three groups were included, SCI only (n=10), SCI + Diphenhydramine (SCI+DPH; n=10), and SCI + Methylprednisolone (SCI + MP; n=9). In the second cohort, only the SCI and SCI+DPH groups were included, each with a n=12. One week after the spinal cord lesion, the rats received Diphenhydramine and Methylprednisolone at 20mg/kg and 30mg/kg, respectively in their drinking water for 4 weeks, in combination with eight weeks of SPG training (10min/day). Sensorimotor and behavioral assessments were carried out and video recorded, before the dorsolateral quadrant transection (baseline), as well as on a weekly basis following the lesion. These tests included the Horizontal Ladder, Open Field, Elevated Plus Maze, Light-dark box, Von Frey, and The Irvine, Beattie, and Bresnahan test. After the final day of testing, the rats were euthanized, perfused, and their spinal cord tissue was harvested. The cervical spinal cord tissue, including the lesion site, was cryosectioned at 25 microns and processed with Neurotrace staining. To quantify the extent of spinal cord injury, we measured the damaged and spared areas within the spinal cord using ImageJ-Fiji.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the well-established anti-inflammatory properties of both Diphenhydramine and Methylprednisolone and their extended administration in this experiment, our findings indicate that they did not have significant effects on any of the outcome measures. These results indicate that although proinflammatory stimuli were reported to improve post spinal cord injury training efficacy, these commonly administered inflammatories (especially the anti histaminergic Diphenhydramine) do not affect forelimb grasping training efficacy.

KEYWORDS

Spinal Cord Injury; Inflammation; Neuroplasticity; Recovery; Task-specific training; Antihistamines; Corticosteroids; Single Pellet Reaching Task; Rehabilitative training; Dorsolateral Quadrant Transection; Skilled Motor Task

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DATASET INFO

Contact: Fouad Karim (karim.fouad@ualberta.ca)

Lab: Karim Fouad

ODC-SCI Accession:955

Records in Dataset: 583

Fields per Record: 54

Last updated: 2023-11-29

Date published: 2023-11-29

Downloads: 9

Files: 2

LICENSE

Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0)

FUNDING AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) RES0052506 (K.F)

CONTRIBUTORS

Cucarian, Jaison Daniel. [ORCID:0000-0002-7281-7840]

Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Raposo, Pamela [ORCID:0000-0001-6350-5223]

Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Nguyen, Antoinette

Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Vavrek, Romana [ORCID:0000-0003-1966-1258]

Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Torres-Espin, Abel [ORCID:0000-0002-9787-8738]

Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; School of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Department of Neurological Surgery and Brain and Spinal Injury Center (BASIC), Faculty of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, US.

Fouad, Karim [ORCID:0000-0003-3654-7852]

Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.