• UCLA Health
  • myUCLAhealth
  • School of Medicine
U Magazine

U Magazine

U Magazine
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Centennial Campaign for UCLA Issue
  • Browse U Magazine
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • UCLA Health
  • myUCLAhealth
  • School of Medicine

U Magazine

Browse U Magazine

  1. Home
  2. Browse U Magazine
Share this
The Cutting Edge

Learning to Walk Again

UCLA RESEARCHERS have discovered that a combination of drugs, electrical stimulation and regular exercise can enable paralyzed rats to walk, and even run, while supporting their full weight on a treadmill.

The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, may hold implications for rehabilitation after human spinal cord injuries. “The spinal cord contains nerve circuits that can generate rhythmic activity without input from the brain to drive the hind leg muscles in a way that resembles walking, called ‘stepping,’” says Professor of Neurology Reggie Edgerton, Ph.D. “Previous studies have tried to tap into this circuitry to help victims of spinal cord injury. While other researchers have elicited similar leg movements in people with complete spinal injuries, they have not achieved full weight–bearing and sustained stepping as we have in our study.”

Dr. Edgerton’s team tested rats with complete spinal injuries that left no voluntary movement in their hind legs. After setting the paralyzed rats on a moving treadmill belt, the scientists administered drugs that act on the neurotransmitter serotonin and applied low levels of electrical currents to the spinal cord below the point of injury.

The combination of stimulation and sensation derived from the rats’ limbs moving on a treadmill belt triggered the spinal rhythm – generating circuitry and prompted walking motion in the rats’ paralyzed hind legs.

Daily treadmill training over several weeks eventually enabled the rats to regain full weight– bearing walking, including backwards, sideways and at running speed; however, the injury still interrupted the brain’s connection to the spinal cord–based rhythmic walking circuitry, leaving the rats unable to walk of their own accord.

In humans, however, neuroprosthetic devices may bridge spinal cord injuries to some extent, so activating the spinal cord rhythmic circuitry as the UCLA team did may help in rehabilitation after spinal cord injuries.


Previous
Rethinking Alzheimer's Disease
Next
Return of the jazz Singer


YOU ARE VIEWING

Fall 2009

Fall 2009
E-Brochure
Printable PDF
IN THIS ISSUE
  • 15 YEARS
  • The Sounds of Learning
  • Rethinking Alzheimer's Disease
  • Learning to Walk Again
  • Return of the jazz Singer
  • New Dean Named
  • How to Build a Bigger Brain
  • Protecting Med Students from Influences of Pharma
  • Chain of Life
  • Transplatation Milestones
  • More Obesity Blues
  • Dr. Daniel Geschwind
  • Do No Harm
  • The Surgeon Scientist
  • Comfort Measures
  • Dr. Slamon's Perspective
  • Award/Honors
  • Rock On!
  • A Toast from Classes Past
  • Cheers to the Classes of ’55-’60, ’70, ’80, ’90 and ’00
  • Come One, Come All
  • Give Back
  • Welcome Back, Donald
  • Supper Time
  • The Dean's Visit
  • Visionaries
  • Gifts
  • Events
  • Chairs of Distinction
  • Memories of Marwa
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest
UCLA Health hospitals ranked best hospitals by U.S. News & World Report
  • UCLA Health
  • Find a Doctor
  • School of Medicine
  • School of Nursing
  • UCLA Campus
  • Directory
  • Newsroom
  • Subscribe
  • Patient Stories
  • Giving
  • Careers
  • Volunteer
  • International Services
  • Privacy Practices
  • Nondiscrimination
  • Billing
  • Health Plans
  • Emergency
  • Report Broken Links
  • Terms of Use
  • 1-310-825-2631
  • Maps & Directions
  • Contact Us
  • Your Feedback
  • Report Misconduct
  • Get Social
  • Sitemap
Like Us on Facebook Follow Us on Twitter Subscribe to Our Videos on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Connect with Us on LinkedIn Follow us on Pinterest

Sign in to myUCLAhealth