Enabling techniques for in vitro studies on mammalian spinal locomotor mechanisms

The neonatal rodent spinal cord maintained in vitro is a powerful model system to understand the central properties of spinal circuits generating mammalian locomotion. We describe three enabling approaches that incorporate afferent input and attached hindlimbs. (i) Sacral dorsal column stimulation r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inFrontiers in bioscience Vol. 17; no. 6; pp. 2158 - 2180
Main Authors Hochman, Shawn, Gozal, Elizabeth A, Hayes, Heather B, Anderson, JoAnna T, DeWeerth, Stephen P, Chang, Young-Hui
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Singapore 01.06.2012
Subjects
Afferent Pathways
Animals
Electric Stimulation
Electromyography
Feedback, Physiological
Hindlimb - innervation
In Vitro Techniques
Locomotion - physiology
Mice
Models, Neurological
Neurophysiology - methods
Rats
Spinal Cord - physiology
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Summary:The neonatal rodent spinal cord maintained in vitro is a powerful model system to understand the central properties of spinal circuits generating mammalian locomotion. We describe three enabling approaches that incorporate afferent input and attached hindlimbs. (i) Sacral dorsal column stimulation recruits and strengthens ongoing locomotor-like activity, and implementation of a closed positive-feedback paradigm is shown to support its stimulation as an untapped therapeutic site for locomotor modulation. (ii) The spinal cord hindlimbs-restrained preparation allows suction electrode electromyographic recordings from many muscles. Inducible complex motor patterns resemble natural locomotion, and insights into circuit organization are demonstrated during spontaneous motor burst 'deletions', or following sensory stimuli such as tail and paw pinch. (iii) The spinal cord hindlimbs-pendant preparation produces unrestrained hindlimb stepping. It incorporates mechanical limb perturbations, kinematic analyses, ground reaction force monitoring, and the use of treadmills to study spinal circuit operation with movement-related patterns of sensory feedback while providing for stable whole-cell recordings from spinal neurons. Such techniques promise to provide important additional insights into locomotor circuit organization.
ISSN:1093-9946
2768-6698
1093-4715
DOI:10.2741/4043