Abstract:

This disorder is typically classified into complete and incomplete SCI. Individuals suffering from a complete SCI have little prospect of rehabilitation, whereas motor recovery can still take place in patients with incomplete SCI. Damage to the spinal cord can lead to a variety of different outcomes, depending on the severity and location of the injury. For instance, high cervical lesions lead to paralysis of the four limbs (tetraplegia), whereas lower lesions lead to paralysis of the lower part of the body (paraplegia).The majority of patients with SCI also experience complications such as respiratory infections, urinary tract infections, cardiovascular diseases, as well as comorbid psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety. At the molecular level, SCI causes biochemical changes leading to the death of a variety of cells, including neurons and astrocytes. Ongoing demyelination and apoptosis of oligodendrocytes are also commonly observed following damage to the spinal cord. One of the key events mediating motor recovery in patients with incomplete SCI is neural regeneration, which occurs during the first days after injury and can take months to years to fully develop. It is well known that primates and humans subjected to spinal cord hemisection lesions typically exhibit an extensive ability to recover volitionally guided locomotion, due to spontaneous plasticity of corticospinal axons at the level of the injury. In the past few years, continued research in the field of neural regeneration has helped researchers identified specific targets that may mitigate the symptoms of SCI and promote long-term functional recovery. However, despite the tremendous growth in the number of nonoperative and operative treatment strategies, neural regeneration and functional recovery after damage to the spinal cord remains very limited. This field of research would clearly benefit from ongoing development of new therapeutic approaches that could facilitate functional rehabilitation.