Effects of exercise and fetal spinal cord implants on the H-reflex in chronically spinalized adult rats.
This study investigated the modulation of hindlimb reflex excitability after transection of the spinal cord in adult rats. After transection, the H-reflex exhibited decreased depression at high stimulation frequencies compared to intact animals. Groups of animals which received a spinal cord transection followed by either an exercise regimen for the hindlimbs or a fetal spinal cord implant, showed high stimulation frequency depression similar to controls. This suggests that each of these palliative strategies helped to "normalize' the excitability of specific spinal reflexes.
Skinner
R D
RD
Department of Anatomy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR 72205, USA.
Houle
J D
JD
Reese
N B
NB
Berry
C L
CL
Garcia-Rill
E
E
D000818:Animals; D003655:Decerebrate State; D005260:Female; D016332:Fetal Tissue Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D006181:H-Reflex / Q000502:physiology*; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000502:physiology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000637:transplantation*; D013997:Time Factors