In vivo imaging was performed to detect changes over time after spinal cord injury using CX3CR1-GFP mice.
See details in Oishi, et. al. (2024) Sci Rep.
Ryotaro Oishi, Ikuko Takeda, Yukihito Ode, Yuya Okada, Daisuke Kato, Hiroaki Nakashima, Shiro Imagama, Hiroaki Wake (2024) Neuromodulation with transcranial direct current stimulation contributes to motor function recovery via microglia in spinal cord injury., Scientific reports, Volume 14, Number 1, pp. 18031
Published in 2024 Aug 4 (Electronic publication in Aug. 4, 2024, midnight )
(Abstract) Spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage or trauma to the spinal cord, which often results in loss of function, sensation, or mobility below the injury site. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive and affordable brain stimulation technique used to modulate neuronal circuits, which changes the morphology and activity of microglia in the cerebral cortex. However, whether similar morphological changes can be observed in the spinal cord remains unclear. Therefore, we evaluated neuronal population activity in layer 5 (L5) of M1 following SCI and investigated whether changes in the activities of L5 neurons affect microglia-axon interactions using C57BL/6J mice. We discovered that L5 of the primary motor cortex (corticospinal neurons) exhibited reduced synchronized activity after SCI that correlates with microglial morphology, which was recovered using tDCS. This indicates that tDCS promotes changes in the morphological properties and recovery of microglia after SCI. Combining immunotherapy with tDCS may be effective in treating SCI.(MeSH Terms)