Data reporting quality and semantic interoperability increase with community-based data elements (CoDEs). Analysis of the open data commons for spinal cord injury (ODC-SCI).

Data interoperability is crucial for effectively combining data for scientific inquiry. To facilitate interoperability, data standards such as a common definition of variables are often developed. The Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury (odc-sci.

No impact of anti-inflammatory medication on inflammation-driven recovery following cervical spinal cord injury in rats.

Following spinal cord injury (SCI), inflammation is associated with the exacerbation of damage to spinal tissue. Consequently, managing inflammation during the acute and subacute phases is a common target in SCI treatment. However, inflammation may also induce potential benefits, including the stimulation of neuroplasticity and repair.

Stepwise Imperatives for Improving the Protection of Animals in Research and Education in Canada.

In this paper, we review the standard-setting tools of different levels of government in Canada for overseeing the care of animals used in science against a landscape of other international efforts. We find regulatory inconsistencies, argue that the related shortcomings are detrimental to the level of care afforded to animals, and offer suggestions for a centralized and proactive approach that could close the existing gaps. Given the resources, cost, and time it would take to transform the current system into a single cohesive one, the proposed approach is a stepwise one, and begins with the addition of two new Rs-Reflection and Responsiveness-to the existing 3Rs framework: Replacement, Refinement, and Reduction.

Challenges in Translating Regenerative Therapies for Spinal Cord Injury.

Regenerating the injured spinal cord is a substantial challenge with many obstacles that need to be overcome to achieve robust functional benefits. This abundance of hurdles can partly explain the limited success when applying regenerative intervention treatments in animal models and/or people. In this article, we elaborate on a few of these obstacles, starting with the applicability of animal models and how they compare to the clinical setting.

Connecting Researchers and Clinicians Before Connecting the Injured Spinal Cord.

Background: Translating research findings from animal models of spinal cord injury (SCI) to humans is a challenging enterprise. It is likely that differences in the use of common terms contribute to this.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify how scientists and clinicians define terms used across the research and clinical care continuum.

Locomotor-related propriospinal V3 neurons produce primary afferent depolarization and modulate sensory transmission to motoneurons.

When a muscle is stretched, sensory feedback not only causes reflexes but also leads to a depolarization of sensory afferents throughout the spinal cord (primary afferent depolarization, PAD), readying the whole limb for further disturbances. This sensory-evoked PAD is thought to be mediated by a trisynaptic circuit, where sensory input activates first-order excitatory neurons that activate GABAergic neurons that in turn activate GABA receptors on afferents to cause PAD, though the identity of these first-order neurons is unclear. Here, we show that these first-order neurons include propriospinal V3 neurons, as they receive extensive sensory input and in turn innervate GABAergic neurons that cause PAD, because optogenetic activation or inhibition of V3 neurons in mice mimics or inhibits sensory-evoked PAD, respectively.

GABA facilitates spike propagation through branch points of sensory axons in the spinal cord.

Movement and posture depend on sensory feedback that is regulated by specialized GABAergic neurons (GAD2) that form axo-axonic contacts onto myelinated proprioceptive sensory axons and are thought to be inhibitory. However, we report here that activating GAD2 neurons directly with optogenetics or indirectly by cutaneous stimulation actually facilitates sensory feedback to motor neurons in rodents and humans. GABA receptors located at or near nodes of Ranvier of sensory axons cause this facilitation by preventing spike propagation failure at the many axon branch points, which is otherwise common without GABA.

Metabolomic Fingerprint of Behavioral Changes in Response to Full-Spectrum Cannabis Extracts.

Numerous existing full-spectrum cannabis extract products have been used in clinical trials for the treatment of various diseases. Despite their efficacy, the clinical use of some of these full-spectrum cannabis extracts is limited by behavioral side effects such as cognitive dysfunction and impaired motor skills. To better understand what constitutes cannabis-induced behavioral effects, our objective was to identify a novel panel of blood-based metabolites that are predictive, diagnostic, and/or prognostic of behavioral effects.

Rehabilitative training improves skilled forelimb motor function after cervical unilateral contusion spinal cord injury in rats.

Animal models of cervical spinal cord injury (SCI) have frequently utilized partial transection injuries to evaluate plasticity promoting treatments such as rehabilitation training of skilled reaching and grasping tasks. Though highly useful for studying the effects of cutting specific spinal tracts that are important for skilled forelimb motor function, cervical partial-transection SCI-models underappreciate the extensive spread of most human SCIs, thus offering poor predictability for the clinical setting. Conversely, moderate cervical contusion SCI models targeting the spinal tracts important for skilled reaching and grasping can better replicate the increased size of most human SCIs and are often considered more clinically relevant.

Beyond the lesion site: minocycline augments inflammation and anxiety-like behavior following SCI in rats through action on the gut microbiota.

Background: Minocycline is a clinically available synthetic tetracycline derivative with anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties. The majority of studies show that minocycline can reduce tissue damage and improve functional recovery following central nervous system injuries, mainly attributed to the drug's direct anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative, and neuroprotective properties. Surprisingly the consequences of minocycline's antibiotic (i.

What Makes a Successful Donor? Fecal Transplant from Anxious-Like Rats Does Not Prevent Spinal Cord Injury-Induced Dysbiosis.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) causes gut dysbiosis and an increased prevalence of depression and anxiety. Previous research showed a link between these two consequences of SCI by using a fecal transplant from healthy rats which prevented both SCI-induced microbiota changes and the subsequent development of anxiety-like behaviour. However, whether the physical and mental state of the donor are important factors in the efficacy of FMT therapy after SCI remains unknown.

New Mechanistic Insights, Novel Treatment Paradigms, and Clinical Progress in Cerebrovascular Diseases.

The past decade has brought tremendous progress in diagnostic and therapeutic options for cerebrovascular diseases as exemplified by the advent of thrombectomy in ischemic stroke, benefitting a steeply increasing number of stroke patients and potentially paving the way for a renaissance of neuroprotectants. Progress in basic science has been equally impressive. Based on a deeper understanding of pathomechanisms underlying cerebrovascular diseases, new therapeutic targets have been identified and novel treatment strategies such as pre- and post-conditioning methods were developed.

Inducing inflammation following subacute spinal cord injury in female rats: A double-edged sword to promote motor recovery.

The inflammatory response following spinal cord injury is associated with increased tissue damage and impaired functional recovery. However, inflammation can also promote plasticity and the secretion of growth-promoting substances. Previously we have shown that inducing inflammation with a systemic injection of lipopolysaccharide in the chronic (8 weeks) stage of spinal cord injury enhances neuronal sprouting and the efficacy of rehabilitative training in rats.

The neuroanatomical-functional paradox in spinal cord injury.

Although lesion size is widely considered to be the most reliable predictor of outcome after CNS injury, lesions of comparable size can produce vastly different magnitudes of functional impairment and subsequent recovery. This neuroanatomical-functional paradox is likely to contribute to the many failed attempts to independently replicate findings from animal models of neurotrauma. In humans, the analogous clinical-radiological paradox could explain why individuals with similar injuries can respond differently to rehabilitation.

Self-directed rehabilitation training intensity thresholds for efficient recovery of skilled forelimb function in rats with cervical spinal cord injury.

Task specific rehabilitation training is commonly used to treat motor dysfunction after neurological injures such as spinal cord injury (SCI), yet the use of task specific training in preclinical animal studies of SCI is not common. This is due in part to the difficulty in training animals to perform specific motor tasks, but also due to the lack of knowledge about optimal rehabilitation training parameters to maximize recovery. The single pellet reaching, grasping and retrieval (SPRGR) task (a.

Electrical Stimulation as a Tool to Promote Plasticity of the Injured Spinal Cord.

Unlike their peripheral nervous system counterparts, the capacity of central nervous system neurons and axons for regeneration after injury is minimal. Although a myriad of therapies (and different combinations thereof) to help promote repair and recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) have been trialed, few have progressed from bench-top to bedside. One of the few such therapies that has been successfully translated from basic science to clinical applications is electrical stimulation (ES).

Fecal transplant prevents gut dysbiosis and anxiety-like behaviour after spinal cord injury in rats.

Secondary manifestations of spinal cord injury beyond motor and sensory dysfunction can negatively affect a person's quality of life. Spinal cord injury is associated with an increased incidence of depression and anxiety; however, the mechanisms of this relationship are currently not well understood. Human and animal studies suggest that changes in the composition of the intestinal microbiota (dysbiosis) are associated with mood disorders.

Single-session cortical electrical stimulation enhances the efficacy of rehabilitative motor training after spinal cord injury in rats.

Low neuronal cAMP levels in adults and a further decline following traumatic central nervous system (CNS) injury has been associated with the limited ability of neurons to regenerate. An approach to increase neuronal cAMP levels post injury is electrical stimulation. Stimulation as a tool to promote neuronal growth has largely been studied in the peripheral nervous system or in spared fibers of the CNS and this research suggests that a single session of electrical stimulation is sufficient to initiate a long-lasting axonal growth program.

FAIR SCI Ahead: The Evolution of the Open Data Commons for Pre-Clinical Spinal Cord Injury Research.

Over the last 5 years, multiple stakeholders in the field of spinal cord injury (SCI) research have initiated efforts to promote publications standards and enable sharing of experimental data. In 2016, the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke hosted representatives from the SCI community to streamline these efforts and discuss the future of data sharing in the field according to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) data stewardship principles. As a next step, a multi-stakeholder group hosted a 2017 symposium in Washington, DC entitled "FAIR SCI Ahead: the Evolution of the Open Data Commons for Spinal Cord Injury research.

Neurodevelopmental and Metabolomic Responses from Prenatal Coexposure to Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and Methylmercury (MeHg) in Sprague-Dawley Rats.

Methylmercury (MeHg) and perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) are major contaminants of human blood that are both common in dietary fish, thereby raising questions about their combined impact on human development. Here, pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats ingested a daily dose, from gestational day 1 through to weaning, of either 1 mg/kg bw PFOS (PFOS-only), 1 mg/kg MeHg (MeHg-only), a mixture of 0.1 mg/kg PFOS and 1 mg/kg MeHg (Low-Mix), or of 1 mg/kg of PFOS and 1 mg/kg MeHg (High-Mix).

Locomotor-related V3 interneurons initiate and coordinate muscles spasms after spinal cord injury.

Spinal cord injury leads to a devastating loss of motor function and yet is accompanied by a paradoxical emergence of muscle spasms, which often involve complex muscle activation patterns across multiple joints, reciprocal muscle timing, and rhythmic clonus. We investigated the hypothesis that spasms are a manifestation of partially recovered function in spinal central pattern-generating (CPG) circuits that normally coordinate complex postural and locomotor functions. We focused on the commissural propriospinal V3 neurons that coordinate interlimb movements during locomotion and examined mice with a chronic spinal transection.