Evaluation of spinal cord injury animal models

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a significant health problem that leads to permanent disability and imposes financial burdens on families and society. Because there is no curative treatment for SCI, researchers use animal models to study the injury mechanisms and develop potential therapies. This article reviews different types of animal models used to study SCI. These models include contusion, compression, traction, ischemia-reperfusion, photochemical-induced, and inflammatory injury models. Each model has advantages and disadvantages in mimicking human SCI. The ideal model should simulate clinical SCI, be reproducible, and involve simple techniques with straightforward equipment.

• 1
  Rodent models offer advantages such as well-described methods for reproducible SCI and widely available behavioral outcome measures. However, clinical trials based on rodent studies have often failed to demonstrate convincing efficacy, potentially due to differences between rodent and human SCI.
• 2
  Contusion and compression injuries are common in both experimental and clinical SCI, but experimental injuries are frequently induced dorsally in the thoracic spine, while clinical injuries often occur anteriorly in the cervical region.
• 3
  Accurate measurement of fine motor and sensory function in animals, especially in rodents, is difficult. Treatment effectiveness in animals with SCI is often measured simply by whether or not independent ambulation has occurred.