Affiliations: Neurology Research Laboratory, Durham Department of Veterans' Affairs, Medical Center, Durham, NC (U.S.A.) | Department of Medicine Neurology, Duke University, Durham, NC (U.S.A.) | Department of Medicine, Center for Health Policy Research and Education, Duke University, Durham, NC (U.S.A.) | Department of Pharmacology, Duke University, Durham, NC (U.S.A.) | Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, NC (U.S.A.)
Note: [] Correspondence: L.B. Goldstein, Building 16, Room 28 Durham Department of Veterans' Affairs Medical Center Durham, NC 27705, U.S.A.
Abstract: Beam-walking in the rat provides a method for investigating the effects of drugs on motor recovery following unilateral injury to the sensorimotor cortex. In the present experiment, the impact of norepinephrine depletion on beam-walking recovery was investigated. Groups of rats were first given either the neurotoxin DSP-4 or saline. Two weeks later, the animals were trained at the beam-walking task. Rats were then subjected to either a unilateral sensorimotor cortex lesion or sham operation. Recovery of beam-walking performance was measured over the next 12 days. Pretreatment with DSP-4 significantly slowed the rate of recovery but did not significantly affect sham-operated rats. Norepinephrine was significantly diminished in both lesioned and sham-operated rats that had been given DSP-4. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that recovery of beam-walking in the rat is mediated, at least in part, through noradrenergic neurons.
Keywords: Motor recovery, DSP-4, Noradrenaline, Beam-walking, Brain injury, Stroke, Cortical lesion, Rat
