Changes in pelvic autonomic neurons after spinal nerve injury

这个项目是关于脊髓损伤对控制膀胱、下肠和生殖器官的自主神经元的影响。某些类型的脊髓损伤的后果之一是没有信号从脊髓发送到脊髓外的神经细胞，这导致膀胱控制能力差，阳痿等。我们正在通过破坏携带这些信号的脊神经来模拟这个问题。我们发现，在这种类型的损伤后，盆腔自主神经元在彼此之间建立了许多新的连接，新连接的类型取决于哪些脊髓神经受到了损伤。这就引出了一个问题：这些新的连接是好还是坏？它们对器官控制恢复正常有帮助吗？或者将来它们会阻止脊髓的正确连接吗？该项目通过使用复杂的染色技术和可视化从脊髓中生长出来的单个神经纤维来解决这些问题。我们将追踪这些纤维如何生长并与盆腔自主神经元连接。特别是，我们将看到它们是否建立正确的连接，以及这些连接是否受到在过渡时期在自主神经元之间生长的新纤维的影响。我们还将做生理测试，看看新的连接是否有正确的功能。这些研究的最终目的不仅是为了更多地了解再生，而且是为了了解是什么决定了是否建立了正确的连接——理想情况下，是为了让我们深入了解如何使再生更快、更准确地工作。我们认为这项工作是对其他脊髓损伤研究的重要补充，这些研究主要集中在恢复自主运动控制（例如步行）；然而，膀胱、肠道和生殖功能的丧失是脊髓损伤患者另一个重要的生活质量问题。

This project is about the effects of spinal injury on autonomic neurons that control the bladder, lower bowel and reproductive organs. One of the consequences of some types of spinal injury is that there are no signals being sent from the spinal cord to the nerve cells outside the cord, and this leads to poor bladder control, impotence, etc. We are mimicking this problem experimentally by damaging the spinal nerves that carry these signals. We have found that after this type of damage the pelvic autonomic neurons make many new connections between each other, and the types of new connections depend on which spinal nerves have been injured. This leads to the question: are these new connections good or bad? ie are they helpful in trying to get organ control back to normal or will they stop the correct connections from the spinal cord from being made in the future? This project addresses these questions by using sophisticated techniques for staining and visualising individual nerve fibres growing out from the spinal cord. We will track how well these fibres grow back and connect with the pelvic autonomic neurons. In particular, we will see whether they make correct connections, and if these connections are influenced by the new fibres that have grown between the autonomic neurons in the interim period. We will also do physiological tests to see if the new connections have the correct function. The ultimate aim of these studies is not only to understand more about regeneration, but to see what determines whether the correct connections have been made - and ideally, to give us insight into how we can make regeneration work more quickly and accurately. We believe that this work is an important adjunct to other studies on spinal injury, which mostly focuses on regaining voluntary motor control (e.g. walking); however loss of bladder, bowel and reproductive function is another important quality of life issue for spinal injury patients.