Silencing long-descending inter-enlargement propriospinal neurons improves hindlimb stepping after contusive spinal cord injuries

Spinal locomotor circuitry is comprised of rhythm generating centers, one for each limb, that are interconnected by local and long-distance propriospinal neurons thought to carry temporal information necessary for interlimb coordination and gait control. We showed previously that conditional silencing of the long ascending propriospinal neurons (LAPNs) that project from the lumbar to the cervical rhythmogenic centers (L1/L2 to C6), disrupts right-left alternation of both the forelimbs and hindlimbs without significantly disrupting other fundamental aspects of interlimb and speed-dependent coordination (Pocratsky et al., 2020). Subsequently, we showed that silencing the LAPNs after a moderate thoracic contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) resulted in better recovered locomotor function (Shepard et al., 2021). In this research advance, we focus on the descending equivalent to the LAPNs, the long descending propriospinal neurons (LDPNs) that have cell bodies at C6 and terminals at L2. We found that conditional silencing of the LDPNs in the intact adult rat resulted in disrupted alternation of each limb pair (forelimbs and hindlimbs) and after a thoracic contusion SCI significantly improved locomotor function. These observations lead us to speculate that the LAPNs and LDPNs have similar roles in the exchange of temporal information between the cervical and lumbar rhythm generating centers, but that the partial disruption of the pathway after SCI limits the independent function of the lumbar circuitry. Silencing the LAPNs or LDPNs effectively permits or frees-up the lumbar circuitry to function independently.