Mapping connective plasticity in 3 dimensions in the rat spinal cord after sciatic nerve axotomy

LAURITO, S.R.; SAVASTANO, L.E.; FITT, M.R.; PATTERSON, S.I.

Huerta Grande

Congreso; Segundo Reunión Conjunto de XXV Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias y XII Taller Argentino de Neurociencias; 2010

Certain forms of peripheral nerve damage are known to result in a neuropathy characterized by chronic pain, despite functional recovery of the connections to somatic sensory and motor targets.  It has been hypothesized that this phenomenon is due in large part to rearrangments of the associated central projections at the level of the spinal cord, and at higher levels.  We have used markers for pre-synaptic sensory axons and post-synaptic dendrites together with confocal microscopy in an attempt to analyze on a global scale the localization and nature of these rearrangements after a widely used form of peripheral lesion, the sciatic nerve axotomy. Our results indicate that even a limited lesion is capable of producing widespread rearrangement of the central connections that appears to affect simultaneously both the incoming and intrinsic neurites. Use of confocal microscopy permits the re-construction in three dimensions of the changes due to axotomy for a widespread evaluation of how the central nervous system may reWire itself after injury, applicable to other experimental models of nervous sytem damage.