Project description:Summary: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a damage to the spinal cord induced by trauma or disease resulting in a loss of mobility or feeling. SCI is characterized by a primary mechanical injury followed by a secondary injury in which several molecular events are altered in the spinal cord often resulting in loss of neuronal function. Analysis of the areas directly (spinal cord) and indirectly (raphe and sensorimotor cortex) affected by injury will help understanding mechanisms of SCI. Hypothesis: Areas of the brain primarily affected by spinal cord injury are the Raphe and the Sensorimotor cortex thus gene expression profiling these two areas might contribute understanding the mechanisms of spinal cord injury. Specific Aim: The project aims at finding significantly altered genes in the Raphe and Sensorimotor cortex following an induced moderate spinal cord injury in T9.
Project description:Excerpt from a larger study which characterized the transcriptional effects of a spinal cord contusion injury in rats. This is the data from the almost chronic contusion state (35 days) at the injury site (Thoracic 8) - where we saw significant changes in several areas, including cholesterol metabolism genes. Other spinal cord areas (rostral, caudal) and time-points (3 hours, 24 hours, 7 days and 35 days) were analyzed as well and are discussed in our paper and at www.crpf.org/microarray. Keywords = Spinal Cord Injury Keywords = chronic Keywords = thoracic Keywords = cholesterol Keywords: repeat sample
