Peripheral denervation participates in heterotopic ossification in a spinal cord injury model

This study investigates how nerve damage outside the spinal cord (peripheral denervation) affects the formation of new bone in soft tissues (heterotopic ossification, HO) after a spinal cord injury (SCI). The study uses a mouse model to mimic these conditions. The researchers surgically cut nerves in the hind limbs of mice with SCI and then injected a toxin to cause muscle injury. They then compared bone formation in the denervated limbs to the non-denervated limbs. The study found that peripheral denervation increased the amount of heterotopic bone formation after SCI and muscle injury, suggesting that nerve damage outside the spinal cord plays a role in this process.

• 1
  Peripheral denervation increases heterotopic bone volume in mice with spinal cord injury and muscle damage.
• 2
  Peripheral nerve section reinforces pathological propensity for intra muscular progenitors to differentiate into bone cells.
• 3
  SCI alone does not significantly alter intramuscular BMP2 expression at the measured time point (18 hours post-injury).