title: Improved recovery from spinal cord injury in rats with chronic parvovirus serotype-1a infection.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A vendor informed us that rats shipped to us and used by us in a spinal cord contusion injury experiment were infected by rat parvovirus type 1a (RPV-1a). Our aim was therefore to determine whether this infection may have altered locomotor recovery or tissue pathology.
  
  
  METHODS
  Stockholm, Sweden.
  
  
  METHODS
  We induced a moderate contusion injury of the spinal cord in rats received from an (unknown to us) RPV-1a-contaminated facility. We compared the hind limb locomotor function between RPV-1a-infected rats and non-infected controls with the same spinal cord lesions, obtained before (historical control), as well as after infection (future controls). Histologically, we assessed spinal tissue sparing, astrocyte reactivity and the amount of macrophages/activated microglia.
  
  
  RESULTS
  RPV-1a-infected rats had significantly better hind limb locomotor recovery compared with both 'historical' and 'future' controls. We also observed significantly better tissue sparing and axonal sparing around the injury site, as well as significant reductions in macrophages/activated microglia and astrocyte reactivity in the spinal cords of RPV-1a-infected rats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results stress the importance of knowing the health status of animals used to study central nervous system trauma and support the notion that acquired infections, even if asymptomatic, may alter response to injury in mammals. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that virus infections may have positive effects on functional recovery after spinal cord injury and indicate that RPV-1a infection may be neuroprotective by dampening secondary damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kjell
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Olson
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Abrams
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism; D015214:Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000503:physiopathology; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D010322:Parvoviridae Infections / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000821:virology; D017992:Parvovirus / Q000472:pathogenicity; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000502:physiology*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000097382:CD68 Molecule
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D015214:Antigens, Differentiation, Myelomonocytic; C067980:CD68 antigen, human; D000097382:CD68 Molecule