Isa Tadashi, Nishimura Yukio
Neurosci Res. 2014 Jan;78:3-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2013.10.008.
To cure the impaired physiological functions after the spinal cord injury, not only development of molecular therapies for axonal regeneration, but also that of therapeutic strategies to induce appropriate rewiring of neural circuits should be necessary. For this purpose, understanding the plastic changes in the central nervous system during spontaneous recovery following the injury would be helpful. In this article, a series of studies conducted in the authors’ laboratory on the reorganization of neural networks in the partial spinal cord injury model using macaque monkeys are reviewed. In this model, after selective lesion of the lateral corticospinal tract at the fifth cervical segment, dexterous digit movements are once impaired, but recover through rehabilitative training in a few weeks to a few months. During the recovery, synaptic transmission and organization of the neural circuits exhibit drastic changes depending on the time after the injury, not only in the spinal cord, but also in hierarchically higher order structures such as motor-related cortical areas and even in limbic structures. It is suggested that on top of the molecular therapies, neurorehabilitative and neuromodulatory therapies targeting such higher order structures should be helpful in inducing appropriate rewiring of the neural circuits.
为治愈脊髓损伤后受损的生理功能，不仅需要开发促进轴突再生的分子疗法，还需要开发诱导神经回路进行适当重新布线的治疗策略。为此，了解损伤后自发恢复过程中中枢神经系统的可塑性变化将有所帮助。本文回顾了作者实验室在使用猕猴的部分脊髓损伤模型中进行的一系列关于神经网络重组的研究。在这个模型中，在第五颈段选择性损伤皮质脊髓侧束后，手指的灵活运动一度受损，但通过康复训练在几周至几个月内恢复。在恢复过程中，不仅脊髓，而且在运动相关皮质区域等层次更高的结构甚至边缘结构中，突触传递和神经回路的组织都会根据损伤后的时间呈现出剧烈变化。有人认为，除了分子疗法外，针对此类高阶结构的神经康复和神经调节疗法应有助于诱导神经回路进行适当的重新布线。
