Spinal Cord Injury Center University Hospital Balgrist University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland.
ICORD University of British Columbia Vancouver British Columbia Canada.
Ann Clin Transl Neurol. 2018 Dec 1;6(1):68-82. doi: 10.1002/acn3.679. eCollection 2019 Jan.
The objective was to track and compare the progression of neuroplastic changes in a large animal model and humans with spinal cord injury.
A total of 37 individuals with acute traumatic spinal cord injury were followed over time (1, 3, 6, and 12 months post-injury) with repeated neurophysiological assessments. Somatosensory and motor evoked potentials were recorded in the upper extremities above the level of injury. In a reverse-translational approach, similar neurophysiological techniques were examined in a porcine model of thoracic spinal cord injury. Twelve Yucatan mini-pigs underwent a contusive spinal cord injury at T10 and tracked with somatosensory and motor evoked potentials assessments in the fore- and hind limbs pre- (baseline, post-laminectomy) and post-injury (10 min, 3 h, 12 weeks).
In both humans and pigs, the sensory responses in the cranial coordinates of upper extremities/forelimbs progressively increased from immediately post-injury to later time points. Motor responses in the forelimbs increased immediately after experimental injury in pigs, remaining elevated at 12 weeks. In humans, motor evoked potentials were significantly higher at 1-month (and remained so at 1 year) compared to normative values.
Despite notable differences between experimental models and the human condition, the brain's response to spinal cord injury is remarkably similar between humans and pigs. Our findings further underscore the utility of this large animal model in translational spinal cord injury research.
本研究旨在追踪和比较大型动物模型与脊髓损伤患者的神经重塑变化，并对其进行比较。
共 37 例急性创伤性脊髓损伤患者接受了随访（伤后 1、3、6 和 12 个月），并进行了重复的神经生理评估。在上肢损伤水平以上记录体感和运动诱发电位。在一种转化研究方法中，我们在猪胸段脊髓损伤模型中检查了类似的神经生理技术。12 只尤卡坦小型猪在 T10 处进行了撞击性脊髓损伤，并在损伤前（基线，椎板切除术后）和损伤后（伤后 10min、3h 和 12 周）在前后肢进行体感和运动诱发电位评估。
在人和猪中，上肢/前肢颅侧坐标的感觉反应均从损伤后即刻逐渐增加到后期。猪的前肢运动反应在实验性损伤后即刻增加，在 12 周时仍保持升高。在人类中，运动诱发电位在 1 个月时明显高于正常水平（并在 1 年时仍保持如此）。
尽管实验模型和人类状况之间存在显著差异，但大脑对脊髓损伤的反应在人和猪之间非常相似。我们的发现进一步强调了这种大型动物模型在转化性脊髓损伤研究中的实用性。
