A Single Dose of Docosahexaenoic Acid Increases the Functional Recovery Promoted by Rehabilitation after Cervical Spinal Cord Injury in the Rat

Autor: Adina T. Michael-Titus, Ping K. Yip, John V. Priestley, Zhou-Hao Liu
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
0301 basic medicine
medicine.medical_specialty
Docosahexaenoic Acids
medicine.medical_treatment
Pyramidal Tracts
Synaptophysin
Nerve Tissue Proteins
Serotonergic
Rats
Sprague-Dawley
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Internal medicine
Fatty Acids
Omega-3
Neuroplasticity
Animals
Medicine
Spinal cord injury
Spinal Cord Injuries
Neuronal Plasticity
Rehabilitation
biology
business.industry
food and beverages
Recovery of Function
Spinal cord
medicine.disease
Immunohistochemistry
Nerve Regeneration
Rats
Neuroprotective Agents
030104 developmental biology
Endocrinology
medicine.anatomical_structure
Motor Skills
Docosahexaenoic acid
Synaptic plasticity
Cervical Vertebrae
biology.protein
Female
Neurology (clinical)
business
Neuroscience
Locomotion
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Serotonergic Neurons
Zdroj: Journal of Neurotrauma. 34:1766-1777
ISSN: 1557-9042
0897-7151
DOI: 10.1089/neu.2016.4556
Popis: Task-specific rehabilitation has been shown to promote functional recovery after acute spinal cord injury (SCI). Recently, the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), has been shown to promote neuroplasticity after SCI. Here, we investigated whether the combination of a single bolus of DHA with rehabilitation can enhance the effect of DHA or rehabilitation therapy in adult injured spinal cord. We found enhanced functional improvement with DHA in combination with rehabilitation compared with either treatment alone in a rat cervical lateral hemisection SCI model. This behavioral improvement correlated with a significant sprouting of uninjured corticospinal and serotonergic fibers. We also observed that the greatest increase in the synaptic vesicle protein, synaptophysin, and the synaptic active zone protein, Bassoon, occurred in animals that received both DHA and rehabilitation. In summary, the functional, anatomical, and synaptic plasticity induced by task-specific rehabilitation can be further enhanced by DHA treatment. This study shows the potential beneficial effects of DHA combined with rehabilitation for the treatment of patients with SCI.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: