Chondroitinase Combined with Rehabilitation Promotes Recovery of Forelimb Function in Rats with Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

This study investigates whether a treatment using an enzyme called chondroitinase ABC (ChABC), combined with rehabilitation, can help rats recover from chronic spinal cord injuries. The research focuses on injuries that are several weeks old. Rats with spinal cord injuries received ChABC or a control treatment, followed by daily rehabilitation exercises specifically designed to improve their paw reaching skills. The results showed that rats receiving both ChABC and rehabilitation experienced the most significant recovery in paw reaching ability. The scientists observed that ChABC increased the sprouting of nerve fibers in the spinal cord, and rehabilitation increased the number and intensity of perineuronal nets, which are structures surrounding nerve cells. The study suggests that ChABC can create a window of opportunity in chronic spinal cord injuries, allowing rehabilitation to be more effective.

• 1
  ChABC combined with task-specific rehabilitation significantly improved skilled paw reaching in rats with chronic spinal cord injury compared to rehabilitation or ChABC alone.
• 2
  Rats treated with ChABC and rehabilitation showed improvements in other forelimb motor functions, such as ladder and beam walking.
• 3
  ChABC treatment increased sprouting of corticospinal tract axons and serotonergic axons, and these sprouts had more vGlut1-positive presynaptic boutons.