Search

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to the impairment of impulse conduction and subsequently to an abnormality of limbs function. To regain locomotor performance in SCI cases, we establish a robust combinatorial regenerative and rehabilitative approach to enhance axonal regeneration in the Sprague-Dawley rat with complete thoracic SCI. This system consists of a body weight support system, five-bar linkage for driving the rat's ankles, and treadmill for training motor functions. This system is tested in a rat which is totally transected at T9 and T10 of the spinal cord. A nanofiber scaffold is implanted in a gap between T9 and T10 of the spinal cord in a spinalized rat for stimulating axonal regrowth. The position errors are quantified under five static load conditions (no load, 10, 30, 60, and 100 g) and dynamic load condition. Average root mean square (RMS) position errors in x - and y- axes of the manipulator are 2.1% and 5.3%, respectively. According to a preliminary test, this system can provide the constant force to support the body weight and can drive the rat's hindlimbs without inducing anxiety or irritation. From our experiment, average RMS position errors in x - and y- axes of the manipulator are 10% and 11.7%, respectively. The contribution of this research is the developmental rehabilitation robotic system for a rat with complete thoracic SCI in quadruped posture which can provide more natural walking posture. The scope of this letter is a developmental rehabilitation robotic system.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a traumatic event which leads to the loss of sensory and motor functions of the body. Complete recovery of these functions are usually limited due to the inability of the damaged axons within the central nervous system (CNS) to regenerate autonomously. Here, a combinatorial regenerative and rehabilitative approach to regrow damaged axons was proposed. Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to a severe T9-T10 full tranection injury with a 2mm gap. Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) loaded fibrous scaffold was implanted within the gap to provide topographical guidance for the axons to cross the injured region. To study the effect of rehabilitation, the rats were separated into 2 groups; those that undergo rehabilitation (trained, N=4) and those that do not undergo rehabilitation (untrained, N=3). In order to rehabilitate the rats, a rehabilitation robotic system consisting of a body weight support, hindlimb manipulator, and treadmill was developed. Preliminary results showed that rats which underwent rehabilitation had more robust axonal regeneration within the scaffold after 1 month. However, the Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan (BBB) score, which is an indicator of locomotor recovery, do not show much significance between trained and untrained rats.