A New Rating Scale for Open-Field Evaluation of Behavioral Recovery after Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in Rats

Abstract

The Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan (BBB) locomotor rating scale has proven a reliable tool to evaluate impairments of hindlimb locomotor skills after thoracic spinal cord injury (SCI). With the increasing use of cervical SCI rat models, there is a critical need to develop scoring scales designed to more precisely examine alteration and recovery of forelimb functions. The main goal of the present study was to elaborate and evaluate a new rating scale for open-field testing of the fore- and hindlimb locomotor functions after cervical SCI. We also assessed the effectiveness of this rating scale for discriminating the functional consequences of dorsolateral (Hdl group), lateral (Hl group), or complete C4 unilateral hemisections (Hc group). Our findings show that the new rating scale can be considered as a sensitive and reliable descriptor of the postoperative time course of deficits affecting differentially the fore- and hindlimb sensorimotor functions following injuries of various severities. This new method provides reproducible data and can be used reliably by non-expert examiners. The proposed rating scale appears to be a useful tool for the assessment of various treatments designed to promote functional recovery after SCI. See online Supplementary Material (scoring spreadsheet and videotape recordings) at www.liebertonline.com.

Forelimb locomotor rating scale for behavioral assessment of recovery after unilateral cervical spinal cord injury in rats

“…The scale by Martinez (2009) has been validated for unilateral cervical surgical injuries at C4 in males. However, because of its cumulative scoring approach, it is possible for the same score to represent different forelimb behaviors, which is potentially confusing for experiments designed to investigate structure function relationships.…”

“…Our group has developed the Forelimb Locomotor Scale (FLS) for use in both surgical and contusive unilateral cervical injury (Cao et al, 2008; Sandrow-Feinberg et al, 2009). Martinez (2009) created a modified BBB scale for use in surgical unilateral cervical injury. Anderson (2009) created the Forelimb Locomotor Assessment Scale (FLAS) for use in a midline contusive cervical injury model.…”

Characterization of a Graded Cervical Hemicontusion Spinal Cord Injury Model in Adult Male Rats

“…Similarly to our data correlating tissue sparing and behavioral outcome, other groups have quantified this relationship. Martinez and colleagues induced C4 hemisections that encompassed varying degrees of white-and graymatter damage, and described a 20-point scale to evaluate forelimb and hindlimb function in an open field test (Martinez et al, 2009). This group reported that lesions associated with the most gray-and white-matter sparing induced less severe deficits in the open field, and that complete hemisection lesions result in severe forelimb deficits with little functional recovery.…”

Neurorestoratology evidence in an animal model with cervical spondylotic myelopathy

“…The animal model used in this study was subject to chronic compression at the cervical spinal cord, which principally affected the sensory and motor functions of the forelimbs rather than hindlimbs. 27 Therefore, it may suggest the lower sensitivity of BBB scores in detecting the spinal cord dysfunction initiated by chronic compression.…”