A new model of tethered cord syndrome produced by slow traction.

Sci Rep

Department of Orthopaedics, the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710004, China.

Published: March 2015

AI Article Synopsis

  • Scientists wanted to create a way to better understand a condition called tethered cord syndrome (TCS) in animals.
  • They designed a special tool to attach a part of the spinal cord in cats, making it easier to study what happens when the cord is stretched.
  • The results showed that stretching the spinal cord led to problems with movement and nerve cell damage, but there were no issues in the cats that weren't tethered.

Article Abstract

The development of a suitable animal model is important for clarifying the pathogenesis of tethered cord syndrome (TCS). This study was undertaken to develop a new animal model for investigating the pathogenesis and therapeutic strategies for TCS. A traction device, a filum terminale tractor, was designed exclusively for this experiment. A TCS model was produced in cats using the tractor to fixate the filum terminale to the dorsal aspect of the second sacrum. The responses to tethering were evaluated by electron microscopy and electromyography for detection of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) and motor evoked potentials (MEPs) at designated time points. Progressive swaying gait and lameness in clinical performance were observed with cord traction. Histopathological examination revealed an association between the increasing traction in the spinal cord and the increase in impaired nerve cells. No changes of SEPs and MEPs were detected in the untethered cats, while the latencies of SEPs and MEPs significantly increased in the tethered cats. The TCS model established in this study is simple and reproducible, in which varying degrees of tension could be applied to the neural elements.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4357992PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep09116DOI Listing

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