Chapter 16 Locomotor recovery in chronic spinal rat: long-term pharmacological treatment or transplantation of embryonic neurons?

Abstract

This chapter develops a strategy to supply the sublesional spinal cord with missing supraspinal neurotransmitters by two different approaches to stimulate and improve functional recovery of locomotor activity in spinal rats. The first one is through transplantation of embryonic raphe neurons as a continuous and endogenous source of serotonin (5-HT), and the second one is through a more classical pharmacological approach. The strategy of transplantation of embryonic neurons does not restore the voluntary control of locomotor movements because the connections between the brain and the central pattern generator network (CPG) remain interrupted. However, it stimulates the spinal cord for a long time and, thus allows triggering of locomotor activity using exteroceptive stimuli. If used together with a strategy of translesion reconnection, it could improve the recovery of voluntary control of locomotor activity.