Transsynaptic changes of neurons and associated microglial reaction in the spinal cord of rats following middle cerebral artery occlusion.

This study investigated transsynaptic neuronal damage and microglial reaction in the spinal cord contralateral to focal cerebral ischaemia in rats induced by permanent occlusion of the right middle cerebral artery (MCA). Three and five days after MCA occlusion, some neurons in the dorsal horn of lumbar spinal cord underwent degeneration and they appeared to be engulfed by reactive microglia; on the other hand, the ventral horn neurons remained ultrastructurally intact. It is suggested that the neuronal degeneration in the dorsal horn was attributed to deafferentation of the local neurons following ischaemic lesion of the corticospinal neurons which are the main source of afferent inputs.