Muscle-restricted knockout of connexin 43 and connexin 45 accelerates and improves locomotor recovery after contusion spinal cord injury.

ABSTRACT: Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) results in the disruption of physiological systems below the level of the spinal lesion. Connexin hemichannels (CxHCs) are membrane-bound, non-selective pore proteins that are lost in mature myofibers but reappear de novo on the sarcolemma after peripheral denervation, chronic SCI, diabetes, and severe systemic stress such as sepsis. Cx43 and Cx45 have been implicated as the major CxHCs present in diseased muscle, and muscle-restricted knockout of these genes reduces muscle atrophy after denervation, likely by reducing excess calcium influx with resultant inflammasome activation. A muscle-restricted Cx43/45 conditional knockout (mKO) mouse model was developed and tested to check whether it would improve outcomes following either a complete spinal c

SUBMITTER: Toro CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11543431 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature