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Public release date: 22 January 2010
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Findings offer potential significance to the recovery of walking after spinal cord injury
Previous studies have suggested that excitatory neurons play an essential role for the initiation and maintenance of
locomotion, or walking. However, this has not been demonstrated directly. In order to test the hypothesis that activation
of excitatory neurons is important to locomotion, a research team at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, created
a genetically modified mouse in which certain neurons can be activated by blue light.
Researchers reveal that jus shining blue light on brainstems or spinal cords isolated from these mice produces
walking-like motor activity. When blue light was shined directly on the
spinal cord, walking-like activity began
and was maintained for the duration of the light pulse. This proved that activation of Vglut2 - a transporter
found in most excitatory neurons in the brainstem and spinal cord as well as many excitatory neurons in other
regions of the brain - is sufficient for walking. Walking-like activity could also be initiated by exposing the
lower brainstem to blue light, demonstrating that excitatory cells in the brainstem provide a sufficient 'go'
signal to the spinal neurons involved in walking.
All the experiments were made in vitro in the laboratory and not in living animals.
The research findings are of potential significance to the recovery of walking after
spinal cord injury. Researchers
believe that this new mouse model will impact the way in which future studies examining the organization of neurons
involved in walking are performed. They hope that their findings can provide insight that eventually will contribute
to treatments for patients with spinal cord injuries.
The study conclusions are published in the scientific journal Nature Neuroscience.
Source: Karolinska Institutet
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