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Experimental spinal cord trauma: a review of mechanically induced spinal cord injury in rat models

  • Dauda Abdullahi , Azlina Ahmad Annuar , Masro Mohamad , Izzuddin Aziz and Junedah Sanusi EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 15, 2016
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Abstract

It has been shown that animal spinal cord compression (using methods such as clips, balloons, spinal cord strapping, or calibrated forceps) mimics the persistent spinal canal occlusion that is common in human spinal cord injury (SCI). These methods can be used to investigate the effects of compression or to know the optimal timing of decompression (as duration of compression can affect the outcome of pathology) in acute SCI. Compression models involve prolonged cord compression and are distinct from contusion models, which apply only transient force to inflict an acute injury to the spinal cord. While the use of forceps to compress the spinal cord is a common choice due to it being inexpensive, it has not been critically assessed against the other methods to determine whether it is the best method to use. To date, there is no available review specifically focused on the current compression methods of inducing SCI in rats; thus, we performed a systematic and comprehensive publication search to identify studies on experimental spinalization in rat models, and this review discusses the advantages and limitations of each method.

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by the University of Malaya postgraduate research grant (PG 181-2015B) and the authors are grateful to the university for the provision of relevant online databases which are prerequisite to the successful accomplishment of the study.

  1. Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Received: 2016-8-5
Accepted: 2016-9-13
Published Online: 2016-11-15
Published in Print: 2017-1-1

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