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J Brachial Plex Peripher Nerve Inj 2010; 05(01): e35-e45
DOI: 10.1186/1749-7221-5-8
Research article
Ahmed et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

Excitability changes in the sciatic nerve and triceps surae muscle after spinal cord injury in mice[*]

Zaghloul Ahmed
1   Department of Physical Therapy, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA
2   CSI/IBR Center for Developmental Neuroscience, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA
,
Robert Freedland
2   CSI/IBR Center for Developmental Neuroscience, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA
,
Andrzej Wieraszko
2   CSI/IBR Center for Developmental Neuroscience, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA
3   The Department of Biology, The College of Staten Island/CUNY, 2800 Victory Boulevard, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA
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Publication History

20 December 2009

18 April 2010

Publication Date:
19 September 2014 (online)

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Abstract

Background From the onset to the chronic phase of spinal cord injury (SCI), peripheral axons and muscles are subjected to abnormal states of activity. This starts with very intense spasms during the first instant of SCI, through a no activity flaccidity phase, to a chronic hyperactivity phase. It remains unclear how the nature of this sequence may affect the peripheral axons and muscles.

Methods We set out to investigate the changes in excitability of the sciatic nerve and to characterize the properties of muscle contractility after contusive injury of the mouse thoracic spinal cord.

Results The following changes were observed in animals after SCI: 1) The sciatic nerve compound action potential was of higher amplitudes and lower threshold, with the longer strength-duration time constant and faster conduction velocity; 2) The latency of the onset of muscle contraction of the triceps surae muscle was significantly shorter in animals with SCI; 3) The muscle twitches expressed slower rising and falling slopes, which were accompanied by prolonged contraction duration in SCI animals compared to controls.

Conclusion These findings suggest that in peripheral nerves SCI promotes hyperexcitability, which might contribute to mechanisms of spastic syndrome.

*This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


 

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