Citation

Pruitt D, Schmid A, Kim L, Abe C, Trieu J, Choua C, Hays S, Kilgard M, Rennaker Ii RL. J. Neurotrauma 2015; 33(9): 871-879.

Affiliation

The University of Texas at Dallas, Texas Biomedical Device Center, Richardson, Texas, United States ; renn@utdallas.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2015.3972

PMID

26058501

Abstract

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the largest health problems in the United States, and affects nearly two million people every year. The effects of TBI, including weakness and loss of coordination, can be debilitating and last years after the initial injury. Recovery of motor function is often incomplete. We have developed a method using electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve paired with forelimb use by which we have demonstrated enhanced recovery from ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. Here we have tested the hypothesis that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with physical rehabilitation could enhance functional recovery after TBI. We trained rats to pull on a handle to receive a food reward. Following training, they received a controlled-cortical impact (CCI) in the forelimb area of motor cortex opposite the trained forelimb, and were then randomized into two treatment groups. One group of animals received vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) paired with rehabilitative therapy, while another group received rehabilitative therapy without VNS. Following CCI, volitional forelimb strength and task success rate in all animals were significantly reduced. VNS paired with rehabilitative therapy over a period of five weeks significantly increased recovery of both forelimb strength and hit rate on the isometric pull task compared to rehabilitative training without VNS. No significant improvement was observed in the Rehab group. Our findings indicate that VNS paired with rehabilitative therapy enhances functional motor recovery after TBI.

Language: en