2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Retrograde axonal transport contributes to neural plasticity in motor cortex after spinal cord injury

Research Project

Project/Area Number	24890198
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Neurology
Research Institution	Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine
Principal Investigator	OHARA RYO 京都府立医科大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (80636986)
Project Period (FY)	2012-08-31 – 2014-03-31
Keywords	脊髄損傷後 / 逆行性軸索輸送 / 神経回路の可塑性
Research Abstract	We showed that a new neurite arise from a cell body and becomes a new axon after axotomy in hippocampal neurons in dissociated culture and retrograde transport of phosphorylated stat3 (p-stat3) by importin-dynein complex contributes to inducing the neuritogenesis after axtomy in our previous reports. In this time, we tried to show the retrograde transport of p-stat3 contributes to inducing reconstruction and plasticity of neural network in motor cortex in vivo by using spinal cord injury model rat. We showed that the level of p-stat3 increased after spinal cord injury in not only the injury site but also the rostral site to the injury site by Western blotting. This result suggested that p-stat3 was transported by retrograde axonal transport after spinal cord injury. But further studies are required to show whether the retrograde transport of p-stat3 contributes to inducing reconstruction and plasticity of neural network in motor cortex.