Abstract
Peripheral and central nerve injuries are mostly studied in rodents, especially rats, given the fact that these animal models are both cost-effective and a lot of comparative data has been published in the literature. This includes a multitude of assessment methods to study functional recovery following nerve injury and repair. Besides evaluation of nerve regeneration by means of histology, electrophysiology, and other in vivo and in vitro assessment techniques, functional recovery is the most important criterion to determine the degree of neural regeneration. Automated gait analysis allows recording of a vast quantity of gait-related parameters such as Paw Print Area and Paw Swing Speed as well as measures of inter-limb coordination. Additionally, the method provides digital data of the rats' paws after neuronal damage and during nerve regeneration, adding to our understanding of how peripheral and central nervous injuries affect their locomotor behavior. Besides the predominantly used sciatic nerve injury model, other models of peripheral nerve injury such as the femoral nerve can be studied by means of this method. In addition to injuries of the peripheral nervous systems, lesions of the central nervous system, e.g., spinal cord contusion can be evaluated. Valid and reproducible data assessment is strongly dependent on meticulous adjustment of the hard- and software settings prior to data acquisition. Additionally, proper training of the experimental animals is of crucial importance. This work aims to illustrate the use of computerized automated gait analysis to assess functional recovery in different animal models of peripheral nerve injury as well as spinal cord contusion injury. It also emphasizes the method's limitations, e.g., evaluation of nerve regeneration in rats with sciatic nerve neurotmesis due to limited functional recovery. Therefore, this protocol is thought to help researchers interested in peripheral and central nervous injuries to assess functional recovery in rodent models.
Highlights
Injuries of the peripheral and central nervous system are often studied in rodents, resulting in a great amount of comparative data regarding the course of nerve injury, repair, or neuroprotection to counteract further secondary injuries and regeneration1, 2, 3
Since the early 2000s this approach has been used in experimental models of peripheral nerve injury (PNI) such as the sciatic[37 ], peroneal[38 ], and femoral nerve injury model[22] as well as after root avulsion of both the lumbar[39] and the brachial plexus[40]
Various central nervous injuries including spinal cord contusion injury have been studied with the method[41, 42]
Summary
Injuries of the peripheral and central nervous system are often studied in rodents, resulting in a great amount of comparative data regarding the course of nerve injury, repair, or neuroprotection to counteract further secondary injuries and regeneration1 , 2 , 3. The device mainly consists of a glass walkway and a light source that illuminates the rodent’s paw prints in correlation with the pressure exceeded by them This data is computerized to calculate a broad array of static and dynamic parameters. It is routinely used to assess locomotor function in rats with central nervous injuries, e.g., stroke[25] or spinal cord contusion[26 ]. This paper aims to provide researchers interested in animal models of PNI and spinal cord injury (SCI) with a detailed and hands-on guideline to assess locomotor function in such models
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