Regional Molecular Diversity in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

To address this need, we used genome wide RNA sequencing to illuminate gene expression changes in the spinal cord injury (SCI) epicenter, and in regions above and below, 30 days after contusion-compression (8 g Fejota clip) of the lumbar spinal cord (L1/L3) in adult female C57BL7J mice.

Across injury zones, there were more upregulated versus downregulated genes, with the most dynamic changes occurring in the epicenter, followed by the below and above regions. The expression of 52.9% of genes was uniquely changed in epicenter, 6.6% in the below region, and 2.8% in the above region, while 18.3% of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) overlapped across regions. Ingenuity Pathway analysis of epicenter DEGs showed 49 unique pathways, including Type II Diabetes Mellitus, P2Y Purinergic Receptor, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, JAK family kinases, and pathways related to GABA and Glutamate function.