Spinal Plasticity and Behavior: BDNF-Induced Neuromodulation in Uninjured and Injured Spinal Cord

Figure 5

BDNF fails to induce synaptic facilitation after SCI. (a) Normalized data (mean ± SEM) averaged over all neurons show that synaptic facilitation was abolished after transection (at L6-S1 or T12-L1) or contusion (at T12-T13) SCI. (Some data points have smaller error bars than the points used to define the data.) Bottom: the average synaptic traces are shown for synaptic recordings obtained from a neonatal rat with contusion SCI before and during BDNF. (b) Mean percent change in synaptic amplitude in the presence of BDNF versus age is shown for each animal that received a transection injury. Although the effect of BDNF is somewhat variable, overall the effect is much reduced compared to the average facilitation of ~30% (represented by the horizontal dotted line) which was seen in uninjured animals of similar age. Also, BDNF’s effects are not dependent on the location of injury. Recordings were done in L2–L5 lamina II neurons. From data previously reported in Garraway et al. [90, 92].

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