Babu Rangasamy Suresh, Anand P, Jeraud Mathew, Periasamy P, Namasivayam A
Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Motor Control. 2007 Oct;11(4):322-47. doi: 10.1123/mcj.11.4.322.
Experimental studies concerning the analysis of locomotor behavior in spinal cord injury research are widely performed in rodent models. The purpose of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the degree of functional recovery in reflex components and bipedal locomotor behavior of bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata) after spinal contusive injury. Six monkeys were tested for various reflex components (grasping, righting, hopping, extension withdrawal) and were trained preoperatively to walk in bipedal fashion on the simple and complex locomotor runways (narrow beam, grid, inclined plane, treadmill) of this investigation. The overall performance of the animals'motor behavior and the functional status of limb movements during bipedal locomotion were graded by the Combined Behavioral Score (CBS) system. Using the simple Allen weight-drop technique, a contusive injury was produced by dropping a 13-g weight from a height of 30 cm to the exposed spinal cord at the T12-L1 vertebral level of the trained monkeys. All the monkeys showed significant impairments in every reflex activity and in walking behavior during the early part of the postoperative period. In subsequent periods, the animals displayed mild alterations in certain reflex responses, such as grasping, extension withdrawal, and placing reflexes, which persisted through a 1-year follow-up. The contused animals traversed locomotor runways--narrow beam, incline plane, and grid runways--with more steps and few errors, as evaluated with the CBS system. Eventually, the behavioral performance of all spinal-contused monkeys recovered to near-preoperative level by the fifth postoperative month. The findings of this study reveal the recovery time course of various reflex components and bipedal locomotor behavior of spinal-contused macaques on runways for a postoperative period of up to 1 year. Our spinal cord research in primates is advantageous in understanding the characteristics of hind limb functions only, which possibly mimic the human motor behavior. This study may be also useful in detecting the beneficial effect of various donor tissue-neuroprotective drugs on the repair of impaired functions in a bipedal primate model of spinal injury.
关于脊髓损伤研究中运动行为分析的实验研究在啮齿动物模型中广泛开展。本研究的目的是定量评估帽猴（食蟹猕猴）脊髓挫伤后反射成分和双足运动行为的功能恢复程度。对六只猴子测试了各种反射成分（抓握、翻正、跳跃、伸展回避），并在术前训练它们在本研究的简单和复杂运动跑道（窄梁、网格、斜面、跑步机）上以双足方式行走。动物运动行为的整体表现以及双足行走时肢体运动的功能状态通过综合行为评分（CBS）系统进行分级。采用简单的艾伦重物坠落技术，从30厘米高度将一个13克的重物坠落到训练过的猴子T12-L1椎体水平暴露的脊髓上，造成挫伤性损伤。所有猴子在术后早期的每项反射活动和行走行为中均表现出明显受损。在随后的时期，动物在某些反射反应中表现出轻微改变，如抓握、伸展回避和放置反射，这些改变在1年的随访期内持续存在。根据CBS系统评估，挫伤动物在运动跑道——窄梁、斜面和网格跑道——上行走时步数更多且错误更少。最终，所有脊髓挫伤猴子的行为表现到术后第五个月恢复到接近术前水平。本研究结果揭示了脊髓挫伤猕猴在长达1年的术后期间各种反射成分和双足运动行为在跑道上的恢复时间进程。我们在灵长类动物中的脊髓研究仅在理解后肢功能特征方面具有优势，这可能模拟人类运动行为。本研究在检测各种供体组织 - 神经保护药物对脊髓损伤双足灵长类动物模型中受损功能修复的有益作用方面可能也有用。
