Gene silencing NMII promotes axonal regeneration against contusive spinal cord injury in rats.

There are drastic changes that occur in the impaired regions after spinal cord injury (SCI), however, improvement of the detrimental pathological process after injury is limited in the mammalian adult, which is due a large part to the failure of local axons to grow. Non-muscle myosin II (NMII) has been proved having essential role in the regulation of cytoskeletal structure and genetic silencing NMII markedly accelerates axon growth in vitro. Our purpose is to explore the association between phosphorylated NMII expression and axonal regeneration after SCI in rats and determine whether gene silencing NMII can improve the locomotor function in rats with SCI. The results showed that phosphorylated NMII level was up regulated after SCI and may even play important role in inhibiting neuronal survival and axonal regeneration. After silencing NMII, the viability of neurons, proliferation of axons, synaptic connection and locomotor functional recovery were promoted significantly after SCI. Our study provides an effective way by direct regulation of neuron viability, the proliferation of axons and synaptic connection for treating SCI, which may be a novel method for repairing SCI. However, the specific signaling pathway mechanisms about the recovery require further study.