Slow- and fast-twitch rat hind limb skeletal muscle phenotypes 8 months after spinal cord transection and olfactory ensheathing glia transplantation

This study investigates the impact of olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) transplantation on muscle characteristics after spinal cord injury (SCI) in rats. SCI often leads to muscle atrophy and a shift towards faster, more easily fatigued muscle types. The researchers hypothesized that OEG transplants could counteract this muscle deterioration and contribute to functional recovery. They assessed muscle morphology, metabolism, and molecular markers in rats with spinal cord transection (SCT), some of whom received OEG transplants. The results indicated that OEG-transplanted rats had muscle phenotypes somewhere between those of non-transplanted SCT rats and healthy controls. The study also identified markers that correlate with sensory-motor function, suggesting potential targets for assessing recovery after SCI.

• 1
  OEG transplantation results in hind limb skeletal muscle phenotypes that are generally intermediate between paralyzed and control and different from both.
• 2
  The expression levels of a variety of phenotypic markers of slow- and fast-twitch hind limb skeletal muscle correlate very well with the sensory-motor functional capacity of SCT, OEG-transplanted rats.
• 3
  Histochemical glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase activity and the fraction of the less acidic variant (variant 2s) of the slow rMLC isoform, in SOL muscle, were seen as the most sensitive phenotypic marker.