Elevated spinal monoamine neurotransmitters after antenatal hypoxia-ischemia in rabbit cerebral palsy model.

ABSTRACT: We hypothesized that a deficiency in the descending serotonergic input to spinal cord may underlie postnatal muscle hypertonia after global antenatal hypoxic-ischemic injury in a rabbit model of cerebral palsy. Neurotransmitter content was determined by HPLC in the spinal cord of newborns with and without muscle hypertonia after fetal global hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and naïve controls. Contrary to our hypothesis, serotonin levels in both cervical and lumbar expansions and norepinephrine in cervical expansion were increased in hypertonic kits relative to non-hypertonic kits and controls, with unchanged number of serotonergic cells in caudal raphe by stereological count. Serotonergic fiber length per unit of volume was also increased in hypertonic kits' cervical and lumbar spinal cord,

SUBMITTER: Drobyshevsky A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4329027 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature