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Regeneration of adult dorsal root axons into transplants of embryonic spinal cord
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Regeneration of adult dorsal root axons into transplants of embryonic spinal cord

A Tessler, B T Himes, J Houle and P J Reier
Journal of comparative neurology (1911), v 270(4), pp 537-548
22 Apr 1988
PMID: 3259590

Abstract

Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide Sciatic Nerve - physiology Spinal Cord - transplantation Rats Spinal Nerve Roots - metabolism Male Neuropeptides - metabolism Axons - physiology Nerve Regeneration Rats, Inbred Strains Fetus - physiology Spinal Nerve Roots - ultrastructure Spinal Cord - embryology Animals Spinal Nerve Roots - physiology Axons - ultrastructure Female Wheat Germ Agglutinins Horseradish Peroxidase Immunohistochemistry
Transplants of the embryonic rat spinal cord survive and differentiate in the spinal cords of adult and newborn host rats. Very little is known about the extent to which these homotopic transplants can provide an environment for regeneration of adult host axons that normally terminate in the spinal cord. We have used horseradish peroxidase injury filling and transganglionic transport methods to determine whether transected dorsal roots regenerate into fetal spinal cord tissue grafted into the spinal cords of adult rats. Additional transplants were examined for the presence of calcitonin gene-related peptide-like immunoreactivity, which in the normal dorsal horn is derived exclusively from primary afferent axons. Host animals had one side of the L4-5 spinal cord resected and replaced by a transplant of E14 or E15 spinal cord. Adjacent dorsal roots were sectioned and juxtaposed to the graft. The dorsal roots and their projections into the transplants were then labeled 2-9 months later. The tracing methods that used transport or diffusion of horseradish peroxidase demonstrated that severed host dorsal root axons had regenerated and grown into the transplants. In addition, some donor and host neurons had extended their axons into the periphery to at least the midthigh level as indicated by retrograde labeling following application of tracer to the sciatic nerve. Primary afferent axons immunoreactive for calcitonin gene-related peptide were among those that regenerated into transplants, and the projections shown by this immunocytochemical method exceeded those demonstrated by the horseradish peroxidase tracing techniques. Growth of the host dorsal roots into transplants indicates that fetal spinal cord tissue permits regeneration of adult axotomized neurons that would otherwise be aborted at the dorsal root/spinal cord junction. This transplantation model should therefore prove useful in studying the enhancement and specificity of the regrowth of axons that normally terminate in the spinal cord.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Neurosciences
Zoology
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