A bipedal mammalian model for spinal cord injury research: The tammar wallaby.

ABSTRACT: Background: Most animal studies of spinal cord injury are conducted in quadrupeds, usually rodents. It is unclear to what extent functional results from such studies can be translated to bipedal species such as humans because bipedal and quadrupedal locomotion involve very different patterns of spinal control of muscle coordination. Bipedalism requires upright trunk stability and coordinated postural muscle control; it has been suggested that peripheral sensory input is less important in humans than quadrupeds for recovery of locomotion following spinal injury. Methods: We used an Australian macropod marsupial, the tammar wallaby (Macropuseugenii), because tammars exhibit an upright trunk posture, human-like alternating hindlimb movement when swimming and bipeda

SUBMITTER: Saunders NR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5497825 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature