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Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition

Although rodents have been widely used for experimental models of spinal cord diseases, the details of the growth curves of their spinal canal and spinal cord, as well as the molecular mechanism of the growth of adult rat spinal cords remain unavailable. They are particularly important when conducti...

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Autores principales: Sotome, Akihito, Kadoya, Ken, Suzuki, Yuki, Iwasaki, Norimasa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9781254/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36555713
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416076
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author Sotome, Akihito
Kadoya, Ken
Suzuki, Yuki
Iwasaki, Norimasa
author_facet Sotome, Akihito
Kadoya, Ken
Suzuki, Yuki
Iwasaki, Norimasa
author_sort Sotome, Akihito
collection PubMed
description Although rodents have been widely used for experimental models of spinal cord diseases, the details of the growth curves of their spinal canal and spinal cord, as well as the molecular mechanism of the growth of adult rat spinal cords remain unavailable. They are particularly important when conducting the experiments of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), since the disease condition depends on the size of the spinal canal and the spinal cord. Thus, the purposes of the present study were to obtain accurate growth curves for the spinal canal and spinal cord in rats; to define the appropriate age in weeks for their use as a CSM model; and to propose a molecular mechanism of the growth of the adult spinal cord in rats. CT myelography was performed on Lewis rats from 4 weeks to 40 weeks of age. The vertical growth of the spinal canal at C5 reached a plateau after 20 and 12 weeks, and at T8 after 20 and 16 weeks, in males and females, respectively. The vertical growth of the C5 and T8 spinal cord reached a plateau after 24 weeks in both sexes. The vertical space available for the cord (SAC) of C5 and T8 did not significantly change after 8 weeks in either sex. Western blot analyses showed that VEGFA, FGF2, and BDNF were highly expressed in the cervical spinal cords of 4-week-old rats, and that the expression of these growth factors declined as rats grew. These findings indicate that the spinal canal and the spinal cord in rats continue to grow even after sexual maturation and that rats need to be at least 8 weeks of age for use in experimental models of CSM. The present study, in conjunction with recent evidence, proposes the hypothetical model that the growth of rat spinal cord after the postnatal period is mediated at least in part by differentiation of neural progenitor cells and that their differentiation potency is maintained by VEGFA, FGF2, and BDNF.
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spelling pubmed-97812542022-12-24 Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition Sotome, Akihito Kadoya, Ken Suzuki, Yuki Iwasaki, Norimasa Int J Mol Sci Article Although rodents have been widely used for experimental models of spinal cord diseases, the details of the growth curves of their spinal canal and spinal cord, as well as the molecular mechanism of the growth of adult rat spinal cords remain unavailable. They are particularly important when conducting the experiments of cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM), since the disease condition depends on the size of the spinal canal and the spinal cord. Thus, the purposes of the present study were to obtain accurate growth curves for the spinal canal and spinal cord in rats; to define the appropriate age in weeks for their use as a CSM model; and to propose a molecular mechanism of the growth of the adult spinal cord in rats. CT myelography was performed on Lewis rats from 4 weeks to 40 weeks of age. The vertical growth of the spinal canal at C5 reached a plateau after 20 and 12 weeks, and at T8 after 20 and 16 weeks, in males and females, respectively. The vertical growth of the C5 and T8 spinal cord reached a plateau after 24 weeks in both sexes. The vertical space available for the cord (SAC) of C5 and T8 did not significantly change after 8 weeks in either sex. Western blot analyses showed that VEGFA, FGF2, and BDNF were highly expressed in the cervical spinal cords of 4-week-old rats, and that the expression of these growth factors declined as rats grew. These findings indicate that the spinal canal and the spinal cord in rats continue to grow even after sexual maturation and that rats need to be at least 8 weeks of age for use in experimental models of CSM. The present study, in conjunction with recent evidence, proposes the hypothetical model that the growth of rat spinal cord after the postnatal period is mediated at least in part by differentiation of neural progenitor cells and that their differentiation potency is maintained by VEGFA, FGF2, and BDNF. MDPI 2022-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9781254/ /pubmed/36555713 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416076 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Sotome, Akihito
Kadoya, Ken
Suzuki, Yuki
Iwasaki, Norimasa
Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition
title Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition
title_full Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition
title_fullStr Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition
title_full_unstemmed Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition
title_short Spinal Canal and Spinal Cord in Rat Continue to Grow Even after Sexual Maturation: Anatomical Study and Molecular Proposition
title_sort spinal canal and spinal cord in rat continue to grow even after sexual maturation: anatomical study and molecular proposition
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9781254/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36555713
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416076
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