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Ovine Hemisection Model of Spinal Cord Injury
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Ovine Hemisection Model of Spinal Cord Injury

S Wilson, D. C Fredericks, S Safayi, N. A DeVries-Watson, M. T Holland, S. J Nagel, G. T Gillies and M A Howard III
Journal of investigative surgery, Vol.34(4), pp.380-392
02/28/2021
DOI: 10.1080/08941939.2019.1639860
PMID: 31304811
url
https://doaj.org/article/ab6d233ae4774b47ba34e78bc1c93717View
Open Access

Abstract

We are developing ovine models of spinal cord injury to test novel neuromodulation-based methods on spasticity. The hemisection has been reported in a number of large animal studies. Our aim is to duplicate a hemisection injury in the sheep. Our effort is explored here. Methods and Results: Three sheep underwent hemi-sectioning of the spinal cord. Quantitative gait analysis was completed both pre- and post-injury. While measurable differences in most of the 20 gait metrics were observed, relatively few were above the predicted thresholds based on error levels expected from the data. Variations in severity of injury across the three sheep were observed. Conclusions: The hemisection ovine model of spinal cord injury shows promise as a large-animal platform for developing new therapies for treating spinal cord injuries. While variability in injury severity was observed across animals, as has been observed with weight drop-based SCI models, the hemi-section approach has the advantages of procedural ease and reduced technical complexity.
Spinal Cord Injury ovine models neuromodulation translational medical research

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