Cracking the black box – and putting it back together again: Animal models of spinal cord injury

The last two decades have seen an increased interest in and improved understanding of the molecular mechanisms that underlie regenerative failure after central nervous system (CNS) lesions, such as spinal cord injury (SCI). This has spurned the development of a range of experimental approaches in laboratory animals to (i) model the complex pathophysiology of CNS lesions, (ii) design therapeutic interventions and (iii) assess various outcome measurements. The challenges in this endeavor have been to limit inter-animal and inter-laboratory variability and to ensure relevance to human SCI. Here, we review current animal model techniques that aim at providing a framework for the development of rational therapies for human SCI.