Abstract
Study design
Experimental study with mice.
Objectives
Spasticity is a common complication after spinal cord injury (SCI) and has detrimental aspects, such as persistent pain and involuntary muscle spasms. This study aimed to assess the influence of antispastic therapy on locomotor function after SCI.
Setting
University-based laboratory in Fukuoka, Japan.
Methods
A mouse model of spasticity was developed by producing incomplete SCI at the 9th thoracic level. At 8 weeks after SCI, an antispastic drug, baclofen, was intraperitoneally administered to six injured and two sham-operated mice. The severity of spasticity was evaluated by the modified Ashworth scoring (MAS) system, and locomotor function was evaluated by the Basso–Beattie–Bresnahan (BBB) scale/Basso mouse score (BMS).
Results
The administration of baclofen significantly improved spasticity in the SCI mice and the mean MAS decreased to from 6.2 to 2.8. However, at the same time, it significantly exacerbated the locomotor dysfunction of the SCI mice and the mean BMS decreased from 4.7 to 2.3. The time-course of the changes in locomotor function coincided with the time-course of the spasticity score. We also confirmed that the administration of baclofen was not associated with any changes in either locomotor function or spasticity of the sham-operated control mice.
Conclusions
Our results suggest that spasticity has a certain beneficial effect on ambulation ability. It is important to note that antispastic treatments may be associated with a risk of impairing the preserved function of chronic SCI patients.
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Data availability
All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the SCI patient who was analyzed in this study.
Funding
This work was supported by a Grant in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (19H03771) (SO) and AMED (19gm6210003h0002) (SO). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, interpretation, or writing of the report.
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Contributions
SY designed the studies, prepared thoracic contusion SCI mice and administered baclofen to the mice, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. KY, KK, and TS performed the BBB/BMS and MAS data collection. MT and DK supervised the overall project and gave technical advice. TM obtained informed consent from the chronic SCI patient. YM and YN designed the studies and supervised the overall project. SO designed the studies, supervised the overall project, and performed the final manuscript preparation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethics statement
All surgical procedures and experimental manipulations were approved by the Committee of Ethics on Animal Experimentation in the Faculty on Medicine, our university (A28-251-0). Experiments were conducted under the control of the Guidelines for Animal Experimentation.
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Written informed consent for the publication of information and images was provided by the chronic SCI patient.
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Yoshizaki, S., Yokota, K., Kubota, K. et al. The beneficial aspects of spasticity in relation to ambulatory ability in mice with spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord 58, 537–543 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-019-0395-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41393-019-0395-9
