Da. Houweling et al., COLLAGEN CONTAINING NEUROTROPHIN-3 (NT-3) ATTRACTS REGROWING INJURED CORTICOSPINAL AXONS IN THE ADULT-RAT SPINAL-CORD AND PROMOTES PARTIAL FUNCTIONAL RECOVERY, Experimental neurology, 153(1), 1998, pp. 49-59
During development, neurotrophic factors play an important role in the
guidance and outgrowth of axons. Our working hypothesis is that neuro
trophic factors involved in the development of axons of a particular C
NS tract are among the most promising candidates for stimulating and d
irecting the regrowth of fibers of this tract in the lesioned adult an
imal. The neurotrophin NT-3 is known to be involved in the target sele
ction of outgrowing corticospinal tract (CST) fibers. We studied the c
apacity of locally applied NT-3 to stimulate and direct the regrowth o
f axons of the CST in the lesioned adult rat spinal cord. We also stud
ied the effect of NT-3 application on the functional recovery of rats
after spinal cord injury, using the gridwalk test. NT-3 was applied at
the site of the lesion dissolved into rat tail collagen type I. Four
weeks after spinal cord injury and collagen implantation, significantl
y more CST fibers had regrown into the collagen matrix containing NT-3
(22 +/- 6%, mean +/- SEM) than into the control collagen matrix witho
ut NT-3 (7 +/- 2%). No CST fibers grew into areas caudal to the collag
en implant. Despite the absence of regrowth of corticospinal axons int
o host tissue caudal to the lesion area, functional recovery was obser
ved in rats with NT-3 containing collagen implants. (C) 1998 Academic
Press.