Is the vertebral canal adapted to host the aged spinal cord? A morphometric assessment

NISHIDA F; BARBEITO J; BARBEITO CG; PORTIANSKY EL

ZOOMORPHOLOGY (BERLIN. PRINT)

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2014 vol. 133 p. 219 - 225

0720-213X

It has been shown that rat spinal cord increases its size with aging. Variations are mainly related to enlargement in width and barely in length. To determine whether the vertebral canal accompanies the spinal growth or it is already prepared to hold the growing organ at early adulthood, we compared anatomical characteristics of the spinal cervical canal of young and aged rats using three different morphometric methods: one manual and two digital, where length and geometric parameters were considered. No differences were detected for the perimeter, height and width of any digital skeleton of vertebral bodies among groups. However, depth of C1, C3 and C6 vertebral bodies was larger in aged rats in comparison with young animals. In addition, some particular differences in the areas of C2, C3 and C4 digital skeletons were found. In spite of the differences found between the analysed groups, geometric morphometric analysis showed that the cervical spine canal of young and aged rats is similar in size and shape. According to our results the cervical canal of early adult rats is already prepared for hosting the growing spinal cord.