Regional cerebral metabolic levels and turnover in awake rats after acute or chronic spinal cord injury

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a common cause of disability, which often leads to sensorimotor cortex dysfunction above the spinal injury site. However, the cerebral regional effects on metabolic information after SCI have been little studied. Here, adult Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into acute and chronic treatment groups and sham groups with day-matched periods. The Basso, Beatte, and Bresnahan scores method were utilized to evaluate the changes in behaviors during the recovery of the animals, and the metabolic information was measured with the 1H-observed/13C-edited NMR method. Total metabolic concentrations in every region were almost similar in both treated groups. However, the metabolic kinetics in most regions in the acute group were significantly altered (P