Rodicio María Celina, Barreiro-Iglesias Antón
Departamento de Biología Celular y Ecología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, España.
Rev Neurol. 2012 Aug 1;55(3):157-66.
Spinal cord injuries are an important sanitary and economical problem for the society. In mammals, including humans, a traumatic injury to the spinal cord leads to a loss of motor and sensorial function, which is irreversible due to the low regenerative ability of the central nervous system. In contrast to mammals, functional recovery occurs spontaneously after a complete spinal cord transection in lampreys. Functional recovery occurs because in these animals about 50% of the reticulospinal axons regenerate after injury and also because of the occurrence of processes of reorganization and plasticity of the spinal circuits. In this review, we first analyze the characteristics and regeneration ability of lampreys as compared to mammals. Then, we compile the knowledge about the process of recovery after a spinal cord injury acquired in studies using the lampreys as animal model and finally we provide some general perspectives about the molecular processes implicated in regeneration that can be investigated in a very advantageous way in this animal model and which knowledge could allow to develop new therapies for patients suffering spinal cord injury.
脊髓损伤对社会来说是一个重要的卫生和经济问题。在包括人类在内的哺乳动物中，脊髓的创伤性损伤会导致运动和感觉功能丧失，由于中枢神经系统的低再生能力，这种功能丧失是不可逆的。与哺乳动物不同，七鳃鳗在脊髓完全横断后会自发出现功能恢复。功能恢复的发生是因为在这些动物中，约50%的网状脊髓轴突在损伤后会再生，也是由于脊髓回路重组和可塑性过程的发生。在这篇综述中，我们首先分析七鳃鳗与哺乳动物相比的特征和再生能力。然后，我们汇总了以七鳃鳗为动物模型的研究中获得的关于脊髓损伤后恢复过程的知识，最后，我们提供了一些关于再生相关分子过程的总体观点，这些过程可以在这个动物模型中以非常有利的方式进行研究，其知识可能有助于为脊髓损伤患者开发新的治疗方法。
