Veterinary Care Methods for Rats and Mice in Experimental Spinal Cord Injury Studies: An Update

The incidences and causes of traumatic injury to the adult human spinal cord vary throughout the world (Lee et al., Spinal Cord 52:110–116, 2014). Regardless, spinal cord injury (SCI) can result in devastating dysfunctions that lead to tremendous and long-term physical, emotional, and financial hardships not only for the survivor but also for family and friends. For these reasons, both clinical trials and numerous experimental studies of individual and combined protective, reconstructive, and rehabilitative SCI treatments have taken place ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=spinal+cord+injury&Search=Search ; Alilain et al., Nature 475:196–200, 2011; Harrop et al., J Neurosurg Spine 17:230–246, 2012; Steward et al., Exp Neurol 233:597–605, 2012; Lee et al., J Neurosci 33:10591–10606, 2013; Sharp et al., Exp Neurol 248:321–337, 2013; Angeli et al., Brain 137:1394–1409, 2014; Collinger et al., Clin Transl Sci 7:52–59, 2014; Hammond et al., Arch Phys Med Rehabil 95:2342–2349, 2014; Kressler et al., Arch Phys Med Rehabil 95:1878–1887, 2014; Moreno-Duarte et al., Neuroimage 85:1003–1013, 2014; Plemel et al., Prog Neurobiol 117:54–72, 2014; Popovich et al., Exp Neurol 261:97–108, 2014; Ramer et al., Lancet Neurol 13:1241–1256, 2014; Sharp et al., Exp Neurol 254:1–11, 2014; Sharp et al., Exp Neurol 257:186–204, 2014; Ward et al., J Neurotrauma 31:819–833, 2014; Aslan et al., Arch Phys Med Rehabil 97:964–973, 2016; Bonner and Steward, Brain Res 1619:115–123, 2015; Dietrich, Top Spinal Cord Inj Rehabil 21:174–187, 2015; Dugan and Sagen, J Neurotrauma 32:622–632, 2015; Dvorak et al., J Neurotrauma 32:645–654, 2015; Evaniew et al., J Neurotrauma 33:468–481, 2016; Hosier et al., J Neurotrauma 32:1633–1644, 2015; Lang et al., Nature 518:404–408, 2015; Nagoshi and Fehlings, Expert Opin Investig Drugs 24:645–658, 2015; Ruschel et al., Science 348:347–352, 2015; Sandrow-Feinberg and Houlé, Brain Res 1619:12–21, 2015; Siddiqui et al., Prog Brain Res 218:15–54, 2015; Squair et al., J Neurotrauma 32:609–621, 2015; Tazoe and Perez, Arch Phys Med Rehabil 96:S145–S155, 2015; Wang et al., Exp Neurol 271:368–378, 2015; Wang and Pearse, Int J Mol Sci 16:16848–16879, 2015; West et al., Neurorehabil Neural Repair 30:317–327, 2016). Advances in acute and chronic medical care have markedly improved the quality and length of the lives of persons with traumatic SCI (Ropper et al., Pract Neurol 15:266–272, 2015). We feel that veterinary care of spinal cord injured animals should have no less of a goal. Moreover, spinal cord injured animals in optimal acute and chronic health are essential for successful experimental studies of SCI treatments. In this chapter, we will report veterinary care methods to optimize the health of experimental animals, particularly rats and mice, with tetraplegia or paraplegia after traumatic SCI.