Left-right side-specific endocrine signaling complements neural pathways to mediate acute asymmetric effects of brain injury

• Autor(a) principal: Lukoyanov, NV
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: Watanabe, H, Carvalho, LS, Kononenko, O, Sarkisyan, D, Zhang, M, Andersen, MS, Lukoyanova, EA, Galatenko, V, Tonevitsky, A, Bazov, I, Iakovleva, T, Schouenborg, J, Bakalkin, G
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/153765
• topic: Brain injury; Left-right side; Neuroendocrine signaling; Neurohormones; Neuroscience; Nociceptive withdrawal reflex; Postural asymmetry; Rat

Brain injuries can interrupt descending neural pathways that convey motor commands from the cortex to spinal motoneurons. Here, we demonstrate that a unilateral injury of the hindlimb sensorimotor cortex of rats with completely transected thoracic spinal cord produces hindlimb postural asymmetry with contralateral flexion and asymmetric hindlimb withdrawal reflexes within 3 hr, as well as asymmetry in gene expression patterns in the lumbar spinal cord. The injury-induced postural effects were abolished by hypophysectomy and were mimicked by transfusion of serum from animals with brain injury. Administration of the pituitary neurohormones b-endorphin or Arg-vasopressin-induced side-specific hindlimb responses in naive animals, while antagonists of the opioid and vasopressin receptors blocked hindlimb postural asymmetry in rats with brain injury. Thus, in addition to the well-established involvement of motor pathways descending from the brain to spinal circuits, the side-specific humoral signaling may also add to postural and reflex asymmetries seen after brain injury.