Progression of pathology after contusion injury in rat spinal cord: In vivo MRI studies Meeting Abstract

  


Authors: Xu, S.; Muruganandham, M.; Koutcher, J.; Kalderon, N.
Abstract Title: Progression of pathology after contusion injury in rat spinal cord: In vivo MRI studies
Meeting Title: 31st Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience
Abstract: The pathologic hallmark of spinal cord (SC) injury is a progressive tissue decay at the damage site. Understanding the stages of the progression of pathology would be very helpful in developing strategies for SC injury repair. The evolution of pathology in the transection injury has been described. Longitudinal studies, ex vivo by histology (PNAS(1996)93:111791) and in vivo by MRI, of the transection site in rat SC suggest that an intrinsic reparative repertoire is activated after injury. However, by the end of the 3rd wk postinjury (PI) the repair is aborted and chronic inflammation/decay take over yielding a widening cavity. These data point to the existence of a window of opportunity for developing strategies for preventing the onset of tissue decay, eg, radiation therapy at this critical period can facilitate natural repair in sectioned SC1. The focus now is on contusion which is more similar to the human SC injury. Here we obtained by MRI a dynamic in vivo view of the events' progression at the lesion site after contusion injury. A moderate contusion injury in rat SC (n=5) was performed with an NYU weight-drop device. Using a spin echo sequence, T2-weighted sagittal and axial images of the lesion site were acquired within 6-42 days PI. As in transection, pointed inflammation (high signal) was first noticed by the end of the 2nd wk PI; this was localized at the cord center flaring up a wk later and expanding dorsal-laterally with time PI. These preliminary MRI data correlate with histologic data (Exp Neurol(1996)421:226) further suggesting a window of opportunity for preventing the onset of decay also in contusion SC injury.
Keywords: meeting abstract
Journal Title: Society for Neuroscience Abstracts
Volume: 27
Issue: 2
Meeting Dates: 2001 Nov 10-15
Meeting Location: San Diego, CA
ISSN: 0190-5295
Publisher: Society for Neuroscience  
Date Published: 2001-01-01
Start Page: 2118
Language: English
ACCESSION: BCI:BCI200200002644
PROVIDER: biosis
Notes: Meeting Abstract: 802.15 -- Source: Biosis