Gait Analysis Using Animal Models of Peripheral Nerve and Spinal Cord Injuries

Isvoranu, Gheorghița; Manole, Emilia; Neagu, Monica

doi:10.3390/biomedicines9081050

Cited by 19 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Future research may investigate gait development at 7 days of life, which might be a more sensitive timepoint for transitions between lateral to diagonal walking pattern. While the majority of rodent research has used task training to teach the rodent how to successfully walk across the Catwalk (Isvoranu et al, 2021), this was not attempted in this study due to only essential maternal separations occurring over the first month of life. The lack of training may have created difficulty for some animals due to the task novelty or possibly lack of understanding of task expectations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of Early Gait Development: Expanding the Application of Catwalk Technology to an Infant Rhesus Macaque Model

Kabakov¹,

Crary²,

Menna³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Background: Understanding gait development is essential for identifying motor impairments in neurodevelopmental disorders. Defining typical gait development in a rhesus macaque model is critical prior to characterizing abnormal gait. The goal of this study was to 1) explore the feasibility of using the Noldus Catwalk to assess gait in infant rhesus macaques and 2) provide preliminary normative data of gait development during the first month of life. New method: The Noldus Catwalk was used to assess gait speed, dynamic and static paw measurements, and interlimb coordination in twelve infant rhesus macaques at 14, 21, and 28 days of age. All macaque runs were labeled as a diagonal or non-diagonal walking pattern. Results: Infant rhesus macaques primarily used a diagonal (mature) walking pattern as early as 14 days of life. Ten infant rhesus macaques (83.3%) were able to successfully walk across the Noldus Catwalk at 28 days of life. Limited differences in gait parameters were observed between timepoints because of the variability within the group at 14, 21, and 28 days. Comparison with existing methods: No prior gait analysis system has been used to provide objective quantification of gait parameters for infant macaques. Conclusions: The Catwalk system can be utilized to quantify gait in infant rhesus macaques less than 28 days old. Future applications to infant rhesus macaques could provide a better understanding of gait development and early differences within various neurodevelopmental disorders.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantification of Early Gait Development: Expanding the Application of Catwalk Technology to an Infant Rhesus Macaque Model

Kabakov¹,

Crary²,

Menna³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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show abstract

“…The footprints of each animal were manually marked after detection and the gait parameters were automatically calculated by the system. Stride length, swing duration, base of support and duty cycle were considered for measuring hindlimb use, and the regularity index was used to quantify coordination, as those parameters were suggested in studies about SCI (Aceves et al, 2020; Isvoranu et al, 2021).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Myelin repair of spinal cord injury in adult mice induced by treadmill training upregulated peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha

Su,

Luo,

Wang

et al. 2023

Glia

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Growing evidence has proven the efficacy of physical exercise in remyelination and motor function performance after spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the molecular mechanisms of treadmill training on myelin repair and functional recovery after SCI have not yet been fully studied. Here, we explored the effect of treadmill training on upregulating peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha (PGC1α)‐mediated myelin repair and functional recovery in a mouse model of thoracic T10 contusion injury. A 4‐week treadmill training scheme was conducted on mice with SCI. The expression levels of oligodendrogenesis‐related protein and PGC1α were detected by immunofluorescence, RNA fluorescence in situ hybridization and western blotting. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to observe myelin structure. The Basso Mouse Scale (BMS) and CatWalk automated gait analysis system were used for motor function recovery evaluation. Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) were also identified. In addition, adeno‐associated virus (AAV)‐mediated PGC1α knockdown in OLs was used to further unravel the role of PGC1α in exercise‐induced remyelination. We found that treadmill training boosts oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) proliferation, potentiates oligodendrocytes (OLs) maturation, and increases myelin‐related protein and myelin sheath thickness, thus impelling myelin repair and hindlimb functional performance as well as the speed and amplitude of nerve conduction after SCI. Additionally, downregulating PGC1α through AAV attenuated these positive effects of treadmill training. Collectively, our results suggest that treadmill training enhances remyelination and functional recovery by upregulating PGC1α, which should provide a step forward in the understanding of the effects of physical exercise on myelin repair.

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“…The cadence in steps/second, max contact mean intensity, and right front (RF)/Left Hind (LH) coupling were calculated using the CatWalk software after classification was complete. Additionally, toe spread, print length, and intermediate toe spread were also manually measured according to previously published protocols for all left hind feet to allow for the CatWalk software to calculate sciatic functional index (SFI) ( De Medinaceli et al, 1984 ; Bozkurt et al, 2011 ; Isvoranu et al, 2021 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of graft source and orientation on outcomes after ablation of a branched peripheral nerve

Allgood

Roballo

Sparks

et al. 2022

Front. Cell. Neurosci.

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Segmental peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) are the most common cause of enduring nervous system dysfunction. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) has an extensive and highly branching organization. While much is known about the factors that affect regeneration through sharp bisections and linear ablations of peripheral nerves, very little has been investigated or documented about PNIs that ablate branch points. Such injuries present additional complexity compared to linear segmental defects. This study compared outcomes following ablation of a branch point with branched grafts, specifically examining how graft source and orientation of the branched graft contributed to regeneration. The model system was Lewis rats that underwent a 2.5 cm ablation that started in the sciatic nerve trunk and included the peroneal/tibial branch point. Rats received grafts that were rat sciatic autograft, inbred sciatic allograft, and inbred femoral allograft, each of which was a branched graft of 2.5 cm. Allografts were obtained from Lewis rats, which is an inbred strain. Both branches of the sciatic grafts were mixed motor and sensory while the femoral grafts were smaller in diameter than sciatic grafts and one branch of the femoral graft is sensory and the other motor. All branched grafts were sutured into the defect in two orientations dictated by which branch in the graft was sutured to the tibial vs peroneal stumps in recipients. Outcome measures include compound muscle action potentials (CMAPs) and CatWalk gait analysis throughout the recovery period, with toluidine blue for intrinsic nerve morphometry and retrograde labeling conducted at the 36-week experimental end point. Results indicate that graft source and orientation does play a significant role earlier in the regenerative process but by 36 weeks all groups showed very similar indications of regeneration across multiple outcomes.

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Gait Analysis Using Animal Models of Peripheral Nerve and Spinal Cord Injuries

Cited by 19 publications

References 56 publications

Quantification of Early Gait Development: Expanding the Application of Catwalk Technology to an Infant Rhesus Macaque Model

Quantification of Early Gait Development: Expanding the Application of Catwalk Technology to an Infant Rhesus Macaque Model

Myelin repair of spinal cord injury in adult mice induced by treadmill training upregulated peroxisome proliferator‐activated receptor gamma coactivator 1 alpha

The effects of graft source and orientation on outcomes after ablation of a branched peripheral nerve

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