Effects of enriched housing on functional recovery after spinal cord contusive injury in the adult rat

To date, most research performed in the area of spinal cord injury focuses on treatments designed to either prevent spreading lesion (secondary injury ) or to enhance outgrowth of long descending and ascending fiber tracts aro und or through the lesion. In the last decade, however, several authors hav e shown that it is possible to enhance locomotor function after spinal cord injury in both animals and patients using specific training paradigms. As a first step towards combining such training paradigms with pharmacotherapy , we evaluated recovery of function in adult rats sustaining a spinal cord contusion injury (MASCIS device, 12.5 mm at T8), either housed in an enrich ed environment or in standard cages (n = 15 in both groups). The animals in the enriched environment were stimulated to increase their locomotor activ ity by placing water and food on opposite sides of the cage. As extra stimu li, a running wheel and several other objects were added to the cage. We sh ow that exposure to the enriched environment improves gross and fine locomo tor recovery as measured by the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) locomot or rating scale, the BBB subscale, the Gridwalk, and the Thoracolumbar heig ht test. However, no group differences were found on our electrophysiologic al parameters nor on the amount of spared white matter. These data justify further studies on enriched housing and more controlled exercise training, with their use as potential additive to pharmacological intervention.