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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> In the study, researchers put rats whose lower legs were paralyzed in a harness on a slow-moving treadmill and gave them a drug called quipazine, a serotonin agonist that enhances the function of the spinal nerve circuitry. The researchers then used an epidural to apply electrical currents to the dura of the spinal cord, the protective membrane that surrounds it, below the point of injury.
The combination of drugs and electrical stimulation caused the rats to begin walking. Several weeks of daily locomotor training on the treadmill enabled near-normal weight-bearing walking -- including backward, sideways and running.
Because the brain was still unable to direct the walking, the rats could only walk when hooked up to electrical stimulation on the treadmill.
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Previous studies have shown that the nerve circuitry of the spinal cord is able to generate rhythmic activity that can direct leg muscles to step, the researchers said. With the right input, the nerves can learn to interpret sensory information from the stepping motion even without help from the brain.
"Previous research has shown the spinal cord can learn whatever task it's being trained to do," Edgerton said. "The spinal cord can interpret the sensory information associated with the stepping, respond to that sensory information and sustain the stepping based on the sensory information."
Locomotive training is a rehabilitation technique that uses that concept to retrain the spinal cord circuitry after injury. Widely used in some European countries, locomotor training involves placing people with spinal cord injuries in harnesses while physical therapists move their legs in a walking motion.
People who undergo locomotor training often see improvements in respiration, bladder function, blood sugar levels and circulation below the level of the lesion, which can help prevent the skin breakdown that can occur as a result of paralysis, Howley said. Others even recover trunk stability, which can enable them to move from a bed to a wheelchair, or a wheelchair to a car, without assistance.
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