title: Horizontal ladder task-specific re-training in adult rats with contusive thoracic spinal cord injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Using the horizontal ladder task, we examined some issues that need to be resolved before task-specific rehabilitative training can be employed clinically for the frequent contusive spinal cord injury (SCI). We hypothesized that improving recovery in task performance after contusive thoracic SCI requires frequent re-training and initiating the re-training early during spontaneous recovery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Contusive SCI was produced at the adult female Sprague Dawley rat T10 vertebra. Task re-training was initiated one week later when occasional weight-supported plantar steps were taken overground (n = 8). It consisted of 2 repetitions each day, 5 days each week, for 3 weeks. Task performance and overground locomotion were assessed weekly. Neurotransmission through the SCI ventrolateral funiculus was examined. SCI morphometry was determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Re-training did not improve task performance recovery compared to untrained Controls (n = 7). Untrained overground locomotion and neurotransmission through the SCI did not change. Lesion area at the injury epicenter as a percentage of the total spinal cord area as well as total tissue, lesion, and spared tissue, white matter, or gray matter volumes did not differ.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For the horizontal ladder task after contusive thoracic SCI, earlier re-training sessions with more repetitions and critical neural circuitry may be necessary to engender a rehabilitation effect.
authors.affiliation: Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40536, USA. smonif2@email.uky.edu
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Onifer
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Laura K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Whitnel-Smith
authors.forename: Kashif
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Raza
authors.forename: Christopher R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: O'Dell
authors.forename: Travis S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Lyttle
authors.forename: Alexander G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Rabchevsky
authors.forename: Patrick H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Kitzman
authors.forename: Darlene A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Burke
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D009068:Movement; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020127:Recovery of Function; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000293:injuries