http://nnr.sagepub.com/content/26/7/898.abstract?etoc
Abstract
Background. The extent to which
pharmaceutical and behavioral therapies following central nervous system
injury may either deter or encourage
the development of compensatory movement patterns
is a topic of considerable interest in neurorehabilitation. However,
functional
outcome measures alone are relatively insensitive
to compensatory changes in movement patterns per se. Objective. This study used both functional outcome measures and kinematic analysis of forelimb movements to examine the effects of human
adult bone marrow–derived somatic cells (hABM-SCs) on motor recovery in a rat model of stroke. Methods.
Adult male Long–Evans black-hooded rats (n = 12) were trained in a
forelimb reaching task and then underwent surgical middle
cerebral artery occlusion, producing a stroke that
impaired the trained paw. One week poststroke, animals were randomly
assigned
to either a hABM-SC injection or control injection
group. Reaching behaviors were then compared at baseline and at 10 weeks
poststroke. Results. Both groups improved
their outcome scores during the 10-week recovery period. However, the
hABM-SC group recovered significantly
more function than controls in terms of the number
of pellets retrieved. Furthermore, the control group appeared to improve
their functional performance by using compensatory
strategies that involved an increased number of trajectory adjustments,
whereas the hABM-SC group’s kinematics more closely
resembled prestroke movement patterns. Conclusions. This study
demonstrates that kinematic measures established in stroke research on
humans are also sensitive to performance
differences prestroke versus poststroke in the rat
model, reinforcing the utility of this method to evaluate treatments
that
may ultimately translate to patient populations.
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