TY - GEN
T1 - An effective treatment strategy for promotion of lower limb functional recovery in adult monkeys with spinal cord injury
AU - Ma, Chaolin
AU - He, Jiping
AU - Aguayo, John J.
AU - Zhang, Hang
AU - Lee, Yushang
AU - Cheng, Henrich
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Aimed to develop an effective approach for treating spinal cord injury (SCI) subjects in a nonhuman primate model, we used four monkeys which received unilateral surgical hemi-section at the T8 spine level (3-5 mm gap), and two of them, as treatments were further transplanted of 4 sural nerve segments as well as infused acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) to injured spinal cord sites. Physical therapy and bipedal walking training on a treadmill were applied to promote the function recovery after surgery. A complex evaluation system including general observation in the home cage, behavioral test and clinic score system was used to assess the effect of the novel treatment strategy. The recovery of functional mobility in treated group is much faster as evidenced by their starting to move around in cage within a week and continued improvement in walking performance as measured by gait symmetry, while the control group developed spasticity and rigidity with a much slower and less functional recovery of mobility. All these results suggest that the treatment strategy of peripheral nerve grafting combined with aFGF is an effective method to treat SCI subjects.
AB - Aimed to develop an effective approach for treating spinal cord injury (SCI) subjects in a nonhuman primate model, we used four monkeys which received unilateral surgical hemi-section at the T8 spine level (3-5 mm gap), and two of them, as treatments were further transplanted of 4 sural nerve segments as well as infused acidic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF) to injured spinal cord sites. Physical therapy and bipedal walking training on a treadmill were applied to promote the function recovery after surgery. A complex evaluation system including general observation in the home cage, behavioral test and clinic score system was used to assess the effect of the novel treatment strategy. The recovery of functional mobility in treated group is much faster as evidenced by their starting to move around in cage within a week and continued improvement in walking performance as measured by gait symmetry, while the control group developed spasticity and rigidity with a much slower and less functional recovery of mobility. All these results suggest that the treatment strategy of peripheral nerve grafting combined with aFGF is an effective method to treat SCI subjects.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67650658095&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICCME.2009.4906660
DO - 10.1109/ICCME.2009.4906660
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:67650658095
SN - 9781424433162
T3 - 2009 ICME International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering, CME 2009
BT - 2009 ICME International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering, CME 2009
T2 - 2009 ICME International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering, CME 2009
Y2 - 9 April 2009 through 11 April 2009
ER -