Event Abstract Back to Event Functional recovery of denervated forelimb muscles induced by cervical spinal cord grafts Gábor Márton1*, Stefania Borda2, Anderson N. Patrick3 and Antal Nógrádi1 1 University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Hungary 2 Prodent Healthcare BT, Hungary 3 University College London, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, United Kingdom Spinal cord injury in most cases results in irreversible loss of function including impairment of motor innervation. Injury to the cervical spinal segments induce the most devastating effects resulting in tetraplegia and denervation of vital respiratory muscles. In less severe cases the important motor function of the upper limb is lost or reduced. This study we intended to restore lost motor spinal cord function following a combined spinal hemisection – root avulsion injury. In our experiments the right cervical 7th spinal segment was hemisected, the 7th ventral root avulsed and an embryonic spinal cord graft enriched in motoneurones was placed into the hemisection cavity. The avulsed spinal root was reimplanted into the graft. Control animals underwent the same operation but received no graft. Fuctional tests were performed and muscle tension was determined. After 3 months survival the 7th spinal nerve was labelled retrogradely with Fast Blue and various immunhistochemical markers were detected. In grafted spinal cords the C7 ventral root was reinnervated by axons of host motoneurones and few neurones of the lateral spinal nucleus. Only few neurones of the graft contributed to the reinnervation of the ventral root and forelimb muscles. In control animals significantly fewer neurones, including motoneurones reinnervated the ventral root. Based on CatWalk analysis and tension recording data the grafted animals showed improved functional reinnervation in their affected forelimbs. Control animals showed poor motor performance. Greater muscle force produced by grafted animals was attributed to greater numbers of retrogradely labelled motoneurones and motor units, compared to those of control animals. These results suggest that embryonic spinal cord grafts act as relay bridges between the injured spinal cord stumps and promote the regeneration of the host neurones rather than contributing directly to the reinnervation of denervated forelimbs. Conference: IBRO International Workshop 2010, Pécs, Hungary, 21 Jan - 23 Jan, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Disorders of the nervous system Citation: Márton G, Borda S, Patrick AN and Nógrádi A (2010). Functional recovery of denervated forelimb muscles induced by cervical spinal cord grafts. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: IBRO International Workshop 2010. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.10.00049 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 20 Apr 2010; Published Online: 20 Apr 2010. * Correspondence: Gábor Márton, University of Szeged, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Laboratory of Neuromorphology, Szeged, Hungary, margavino@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Gábor Márton Stefania Borda Anderson N Patrick Antal Nógrádi Google Gábor Márton Stefania Borda Anderson N Patrick Antal Nógrádi Google Scholar Gábor Márton Stefania Borda Anderson N Patrick Antal Nógrádi PubMed Gábor Márton Stefania Borda Anderson N Patrick Antal Nógrádi Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.