PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Trigger mechanism for recovery after spinal cord injury revealed

Trigger mechanism for recovery after spinal cord injury revealed
2014-12-18
(Press-News.org) After an incomplete spinal cord injury, the body can partially recover basic motor function. So-called muscle spindles and associated sensory circuits back to the spinal cord promote the establishment of novel neuronal connections after injury. This circuit-level mechanism behind the process of motor recovery was elucidated by Prof. Silvia Arber's research group at the Biozentrum, University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research. Their findings may contribute to designing novel strategies for treatment after spinal cord injuries and have now been published in the journal Cell.

Spinal cord injuries often lead to chronically impaired motor function. However, patients with incomplete spinal cord injury can partially regain their basic motor ability under certain circumstances. It is believed that remaining uninjured spinal cord tissue provides a substrate to form new circuits bridging the injury. How this formation of new connections is triggered and promoted has remained unclear until now.

In collaboration with Prof. Grégoire Courtine's research group at the EPFL in Lausanne, the team of Prof. Silvia Arber at the Biozentrum at the University of Basel and the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) has demonstrated in a mouse model why paralyzed limbs can move again after incomplete spinal cord injuries: A specific sensory feedback channel connected to sensors embedded within the muscles - so-called muscle spindles - promotes the functional recovery of the damaged neuronal circuits in the spinal cord.

Muscle spindle sensory feedback provides trigger signal for recovery

Limb movement activates sensory feedback loops from the muscle to the spinal cord. This specific feedback channel promotes the repair process of the damaged spinal network after injury. As a result, basic motor function can be restored. "The sensory feedback loops from muscle spindles are therefore a key factor in the recovery process," says Silvia Arber. After spinal cord injury, these nerve impulses keep providing information to the central nervous system - even when the transmission of information from the brain to the spinal cord no longer functions.

"An important trigger for the recovery process is the information conveyed from the muscle to the central nervous system and not only the top-down information the brain sends towards muscles," explains the first author Aya Takeoka. In addition, the researchers demonstrated that only basic locomotor functionality could be restored spontaneously after an injury. Fine locomotor task performance tested, however, remained permanently lost.

Treatments must start with activation of muscle spindles

The study suggests that activation of muscle spindles is essential to promote the recovery process of damaged neuronal networks after spinal cord injury. Thus, therapeutic approaches should aim to extensively use the muscles, even if passively after an injury. The more intensely muscles are used in the movement process, the more muscle spindle feedback circuits are stimulated. By applying this principle, the repair of neuronal circuits and the accompanying recovery of basic motor skills will have the best chances of succeeding.

INFORMATION:

Original citation Aya Takeoka, Isabel Vollenweider, Grégoire Courtine, and Silvia Arber
Muscle Spindle Feedback Directs Locomotor Recovery and Circuit Reorganization after Spinal Cord Injury
Cell (2014)


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Trigger mechanism for recovery after spinal cord injury revealed

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New research solves old mystery of silent cell death

New research solves old mystery of silent cell death
2014-12-18
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have for the first time revealed how dying cells are hidden from the immune 'police' that patrol the body. The research answers a decades-old mystery about the death of cells, which in some situations can alert the immune system to potential danger, but in other circumstances occurs 'silently', unnoticed by immune cells. Silent cell death, or apoptosis, is a controlled way for the body to eliminate cells that may be damaged, old, or surplus to the body's requirements, without causing collateral damage. This 'normal' cell death ...

Microexons: Small fragments of genes, essential for neurone maturation

2014-12-18
This news release is available in Spanish. The genome is the cell's book of instructions. All the cells in our body contain the same genomic information but each of them "reads" the gene fragments that interest them in order to carry out their function. So, neurones, hepatocytes and cardiac cells are different although their genome is the same. In order to achieve this huge variety of functions from the same genome, the cells employ a mechanism known as alternative splicing. This enables them to combine several fragments - known as exons - from the same genes in order ...

23andMe study sketches genetic portrait of the United States

2014-12-18
Mountain View, Calif. - December 18, 2014 - 23andMe, Inc., the leading personal genetics company, today announced the publication of a study that pinpoints fine-scale differences in genetic ancestry of individuals from across the United States. Since immigrants first arrived more than four hundred years ago, the United States has served as a meeting place for peoples from different continents. This study illuminates how American history and the ongoing mixing of peoples with African, European, and American origins can be seen in our DNA. "The relationship between genomics ...

Rice study fuels hope for natural gas cars

Rice study fuels hope for natural gas cars
2014-12-18
HOUSTON - (Dec. 18, 2014) - Cars that run on natural gas are touted as efficient and environmentally friendly, but getting enough gas onboard to make them practical is a hurdle. A new study led by researchers at Rice University promises to help. Rather than shoehorn bulky high-pressure tanks like those used in buses and trucks into light vehicles, the Department of Energy (DOE) encourages scientists to look at new materials that can store compressed natural gas (CNG) at low pressure and at room temperature. Cage-like synthetic macromolecules called metal organic frameworks ...

Team develops 'cool' new method for probing how molecules fold

Team develops cool new method for probing how molecules fold
2014-12-18
LA JOLLA, CA--December 18, 2014--Collaborating scientists from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the University of California (UC) San Diego have developed a powerful new system for studying how proteins and other biological molecules form and lose their natural folded structures. Using the new system, researchers can force a sample of molecules to unfold and refold by boosting and then dropping the temperature, so quickly that even some of the fastest molecular folding events can be tracked. "One way of studying these structures has been to make them unfold ...

Of bugs and brains

Of bugs and brains
2014-12-18
Whether you're cramming for an exam or just trying to remember where you put your car keys, learning and memory are critical functions that we constantly employ in daily life. It turns out that the structure and function of brain centers responsible for learning and memory in a wide range of invertebrate species may possibly share the same fundamental characteristics, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology and performed by University of Arizona neuroscientists Nicholas Strausfeld, Regents' Professor in the Department of Neuroscience, part of ...

SLU research finds enzyme inhibitors suppress herpes simplex virus replication

SLU research finds enzyme inhibitors suppress herpes simplex virus replication
2014-12-18
ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis University research findings published in the December issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy report a family of molecules known as nucleotidyltransferase superfamily (NTS) enzyme inhibitors are promising candidates for new herpes virus treatments. The findings could lead to new treatment options for herpes that patients can use in conjunction with or instead of currently approved anti-viral medications like Acyclovir. Researcher Lynda A. Morrison Ph.D., professor of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Saint Louis University, likened ...

Mutations need help from aging tissue to cause leukemia

2014-12-18
Why are older people at higher risk for developing cancer? Prevailing opinion holds that, over time, your body's cells accumulate DNA damage and that eventually this damage catches up with the body in a way that causes cancer. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Aging shows that this prevailing opinion is incomplete. In addition to DNA damage, cancer depends on the slow degradation of tissue that surrounds cancer cells, something that naturally comes with aging. "It's really all about natural selection and survival of the fittest," ...

Study finds Illinois is most critical hub in food distribution network

2014-12-18
Illinois is the most critical hub in the network of U.S. domestic food transfers, according to a new study by Megan Konar, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and colleagues at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The study was published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Much like the national airport network in which O'Hare International Airport is a major hub, Illinois plays the most central role in distributing food across the U.S. According to the report, the U.S. food network moves more than 400 million tons ...

Core hospital care team members may surprise you

2014-12-18
Doctors and nurses are traditionally thought to be the primary caretakers of patients in a typical hospital setting. But according to a study at the burn center intensive care unit at Loyola University Health System, three physicians, a social worker and a dietitian were documented as the most central communicators of the patient clinical team. David Shoham, PhD, and colleagues were published in the American Burn Association's Journal of Burn Care & Research. Shoham is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences of Loyola University Chicago Stritch ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Individuals with multiple sclerosis face substantially greater risk of hospitalisation and death from COVID-19, despite high rates of vaccination

Study shows obesity in childhood associated with a more than doubling of risk of developing multiple sclerosis in early adulthood

Rice Emerging Scholars Program receives $2.5M NSF grant to boost STEM education

Virtual rehabilitation provides benefits for stroke recovery

Generative AI develops potential new drugs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Biofuels could help island nations survive a global catastrophe, study suggests

NJIT research team discovering how fluids behave in nanopores with NSF grant

New study shows association of historical housing discrimination and shortfalls in colon cancer treatment

Social media use may help to empower plastic surgery patients

Q&A: How to train AI when you don't have enough data

Wayne State University researchers uncover potential treatment targets for Zika virus-related eye abnormalities

Discovering Van Gogh in the wild: scientists unveil a new gecko species

Small birds spice up the already diverse diet of spotted hyenas in Namibia

Imaging detects transient “hypoxic pockets” in the mouse brain

Dissolved organic matter could be used to track and improve the health of freshwaters

Indoor air quality standards in public buildings would boost health and economy, say international experts

Positive associations between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

New imaging method illuminates oxygen's journey in the brain

Researchers discover key gene for toxic alkaloid in barley

New approach to monitoring freshwater quality can identify sources of pollution, and predict their effects

Bidirectional link between premenstrual disorders and perinatal depression

Cell division quality control ‘stopwatch’ uncovered

Vaccine protects cattle from bovine tuberculosis, may eliminate disease

Andrew Siemion to receive the SETI Institute’s 2024 Drake Award

New study shows how the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus enters our cells

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy proves effective for locally advanced penile squamous cell carcinoma

Study flips treatment paradigm in bilateral Wilms tumor, shows resistance to chemotherapy may point toward favorable outcomes

Doctors received approximately $12.1 billion from drug and device makers between 2013-2022

Discovery suggests new strategy against follicular lymphoma

Making the future too bright: how wishful thinking can point us in the wrong direction

[Press-News.org] Trigger mechanism for recovery after spinal cord injury revealed