Abstract
Spasticity is a common motor disorder following a variety of upper motor neuron lesions that seriously affects the quality of patient's life. We aimed to evaluate whether muscle spasms can be suppressed by blocking nerve signal conduction. A rat model of lower limb spasm was prepared and the conduction of pathological nerve signals were blocked to study the inhibitory effect of nerve signal block on muscle spasm. The experimental results showed that 4 weeks after the 9th segment of the rat's thoracic spinal cord was completely transacted, the H/M -ratio of the lower limbs increased, and rate-dependent depression was weakened. When the rat model was stimulated by external forces, the electromyography (EMG) signals of the spastic gastrocnemius muscles continued to erupt. After blocking the conduction of nerve signals in the rat sciatic nerve, the spastic EMG signal of the gastrocnemius muscle disappeared. The effective blocking time and blocking efficiency increased with increasing blocking signal amplitude, and the maximum blocking efficiency reached 73%. The experimental results of this study proved the feasibility of inhibiting lower limb spasticity by blocking nerve signal conduction.
Highlights
SPASTICITY is common in a variety of central nervous system diseases, such as stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis [1]
In previous studies by our research group, we proposed a blocking method that can instantly block nerve signal conduction without causing nerve excitement—the spike trapping nerve block (STNB) [32]
We only evaluated the possibility of inhibiting spasticity by blocking nerve signal conduction and did not achieve true STNB
Summary
SPASTICITY is common in a variety of central nervous system diseases, such as stroke, spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis [1]. In 1999, Bennett et al established a commonly used rat tail muscle spasm animal model by damaging the S2 spinal cord of rats [8] This spasm model usually does not affect the intestines, bladder or lower limbs of the animal, causes little damage, and has the advantages of simple care and a high survival rate. In 2002, Sufianova et al established a spinal cord ischemic injury rat model by occluding the abdominal aorta and its branches to cause transient lumbar spinal cord ischemia [10] This ischemic spinal cord injury model has been proven to be able to simulate lower limb spasticity after human spinal cord injury. The same method was used to prepare an
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