Spinal Locomotion in Cats Following Spinal Cord Injury: A Prospective Study.

Ângela Martins,Débora Gouveia,Tiago Coelho,Óscar Gamboa,Cátia Marina Silva,António Ferreira,Ana Cardoso,Eduardo Marcelino

doi:10.3390/ani11071994

Ângela Martins, Débora Gouveia + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11071994

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Abstract

Simple SummaryFunctional neurorehabilitation promotes neural reorganization by stimulating subjects without deep pain perception, leading to a faster recovery when compared to spontaneous recovery, and achieving fewer compensatory errors, or even deviations to neuropathic or adaptive pain pathways, such as spasticity. The present study demonstrates the importance of intensive and repetition-based functional neurorehabilitation, which is essential for subjects classified as grade 0 according to the modified Frankel scale. This article aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intensive neurorehabilitation in paraplegic cats, with no deep pain perception (grade 0 on the modified Frankel scale), with more than three months of injury. Nine cats, admitted to the Arrábida Veterinary Hospital/Arrábida Animal Rehabilitation Center (CRAA), were subjected to a 12-week intensive functional neurorehabilitation protocol, based on ground and underwater treadmill locomotor training, electrostimulation, and kinesiotherapy exercises, aiming to obtain a faster recovery to ambulation and a modulated locomotor pattern of flexion/extension. Of the nine cats that were admitted in this study, 56% (n = 5) recovered from ambulation, 44% of which (4/9) did so through functional spinal locomotion by reflexes, while one achieved this through the recovery of deep pain perception. These results suggest that intensive neurorehabilitation can play an important role in ambulation recovery, allowing for a better quality of life and well-being, which may lead to a reduction in the number of euthanasia procedures performed on paraplegic animals.

Highlights

Locomotion is based on the synchronization between the flexion and extension of the limbs and reflex circuits of the spinal cord
The fact that stimulation through intensive neurorehabilitation protocol (INRP) was extended for three months, and that the plateau that is indicative of motor recovery occurs between two and three months [7,17,18], accounts for the INRP for the neurologic improvement of cats
And important studies in neuroscience were performed in acute and chronic adult spinal cats and were based on a complete section of the spinal cord in a laboratory setting, which resulted in the paralysis of the pelvic limbs [4,7,8,23,24]

Summary

Introduction

Locomotion is based on the synchronization between the flexion and extension of the limbs and reflex circuits of the spinal cord. The alternation between the extension and flexion of the pelvic limbs involves the central pattern generators (CPGs). The CPGs are spinal locomotor circuits with pacemaker proprieties, located in the thoracolumbar spinal cord, which generate bilateral rhythmic and repetitive contractions and relaxations of the flexors and extensor muscles in the absence of descending motor tracts and supraspinal inputs [1,2]. The supraspinal control of the CPGs originates in the nuclei, located in the midbrain (“mesencephalic locomotor region”). These nuclei initiate locomotion by activating the reticulospinal neurons in the brain stem. There are the following two major descending motor tracts: the medial longitudinal fascicle, with cells originating in the medial pontomedullary reticular formation, and the lateral vestibulospinal tract [3]

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