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African Spiny Mice as a Comparative Model of Spinal Cord Injury Repair and Recovery
Author(s) -
Orr Michael,
Bailey William,
Richards Kirsten,
Kopper Timothy,
Seifert Ashley,
Gensel John
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.727.3
Subject(s) - spinal cord injury , regeneration (biology) , spinal cord , biology , neuroscience , central nervous system , pathology , medicine , anatomy , microbiology and biotechnology
The adult mammalian central nervous system does not regeneration after injury. Spinal cord injury (SCI) results in a complex cascade of secondary damage responses that can exacerbate the initial injury or facilitate recovery. While inflammatory and fibrotic responses are known to be key regulators in promoting or repressing SCI repair, our understanding of their exact role in spinal regeneration is still evolving. While a mammalian model of enhanced regeneration would be invaluable for SCI studies, none currently exist. Translating therapies from non‐mammalian models that demonstrate spinal cord regeneration to mammals is complicated by a host of interspecific physiological differences. African spiny mice (genus Acomys ) are a unique group of rodents that can regenerate full‐thickness skin, musculoskeletal tissue in the ear pinna, and recover from severe kidney injury. Multi‐organ tissue regeneration occurs coincident with inflammatory and scarring responses that are distinct from those of the non‐regenerating laboratory mouse (genus Mus ). However, there are no published studies of Acomys regenerative capacity in the spinal cord. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of Acomys as a mammalian model of enhanced repair/recovery following spinal cord injury. Through histological analysis of uninjured tissue, we found that Acomys and Mus have similar gross neuroanatomical spinal structures. After SCI, motor and sensory functional tests revealed distinct functional recovery profiles between Acomys and Mus . Ongoing cellular studies of injured spinal tissue are investigating the macrophage and extracellular matrix profiles, which we predict to differ based on inflammatory and scarring responses to peripheral injuries. These preliminary data suggest that while Acomys and Mus have similar baseline spinal anatomy, the physiological response to injury is distinct and may provide insight to critical features leading mammalian SCI recovery and regeneration. Support or Funding Information 5T32 NS077889 This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .