Self-assembling peptide amphiphile promotes plasticity of serotonergic fibers following spinal cord injury.

ABSTRACT: Injection into the injured spinal cord of peptide amphiphile (PA) molecules that self-assemble and display the laminin epitope IKVAV at high density improved functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) in two different species, rat and mouse, and in two different injury models, contusion and compression. The improvement required the IKVAV epitope and was not observed with the injection of an amphiphile displaying a nonbioactive sequence. To explore the mechanisms underlying these improvements, the number of serotonergic fibers in the lesioned spinal cord was compared in animals receiving the IKVAV-PA, a nonbioactive PA (PA control), or sham injection. Serotonergic fibers were distributed equally in all three groups rostral to the injury but showed a significantly higher density caud

SUBMITTER: Tysseling VM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2943558 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature