Up-Regulation of Astrocytic Fgfr4 Expression in Adult Mice after Spinal Cord Injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to persistent neurological deficits without available curative treatment. After SCI astrocytes within the lesion vicinity become reactive, these undergo major morphological, and molecular transformations. Previously, we reported that following SCI, over 10% of resident astrocytes surrounding the lesion spontaneously transdifferentiate towards a neuronal phenotype.

CSF1R Inhibition Reduces Microglia Proliferation, Promotes Tissue Preservation and Improves Motor Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) induces a pronounced neuroinflammation driven by activation and proliferation of resident microglia as well as infiltrating peripheral monocyte-derived macrophages. Depending on the time post-lesion, positive and detrimental influences of microglia/macrophages on axonal regeneration had been reported after SCI, raising the issue whether their modulation may represent an attractive therapeutic strategy. Colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF1) regulates microglia/macrophages proliferation, differentiation and survival thus, pharmacological treatments using CSF1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitors had been used to ablate microglia.