Spinal Cord Injury Research

KEY FINDING: EPO demonstrates cytoprotection in a variety of tissues, including spinal cord, through activation of multiple signaling pathways.

KEY FINDING: Plasmid-loaded bridges support substantial cell infiltration and aligned cells within the channels.

KEY FINDING: Glial scar resection did not significantly affect functional recovery in the dorsal hemisection model.

KEY FINDING: Wild-type mice developed a more severe glial scar compared to MMP-9 null mice after spinal cord injury, indicating MMP-9's role in glial scar formation.

KEY FINDING: OEG enhance DRG axon outgrowth on myelin: More neurons generate axons, and their average length is almost twice that of those grown on myelin alone.

KEY FINDING: The coculture implant led to a four fold increase in functional vessels compared to the lesion control, implant alone, or implant plus NPCs groups.

KEY FINDING: Ibuprofen reduces ligand-induced Rho signaling and myelin-induced inhibition of neurite outgrowth in vitro.

KEY FINDING: Fibronectin, an ECM protein, produced greater gene expression levels and immobilization efficiencies compared with collagen and laminin.

KEY FINDING: Fibrin scaffolds significantly increased neural fiber staining in the lesion site at 2 and 4 weeks after treatment compared to untreated controls.

KEY FINDING: GDNF enhances both the number and caliber of regenerated axons in vivo and increases neurite outgrowth of dorsal root ganglion neurons (DRGN) in vitro, suggesting that GDNF has a direct effect on neurons.