Novel targets in injured cord in an obese SCI rat model. Rattus norvegicus

In the present study, we sought to understand the impact of obesity/metabolic disease (high-fat induced) on spinal cord injury (SCI) by examining transcriptome. Adult, male Long Evans rats received either thoracic level contusion of the spinal cord or sham laminectomy and then were allowed to recover on normal rat chow for 4 weeks and further on HFD for an additional 8 weeks. Spinal cord tissues harvested from the rats were processed for Affymetrix microarray and further transcriptomic analysis. Overall design: Male, Long Evans rats (400g) (Harlan, Indianapolis, IN) (N=10) werewere maintained on standard chow (#8640, Envigo, 3.0 kCal/g; 17% fat, 54% carbohydrate, 29% protein). Rats were assigned to either sham-laminectomy (Sham) or thoracic spinal cord injury (tSCI) group in a counterbalanced fashion based on body weight on the day prior to the start of surgery. Surgery was performed and animals were allowed to recover for 4 weeks following surgery. Rats were switched to a palatable, high-fat diet (HFD) (#D03082706, Research Diets, New Brunswick, NJ, 4.54 kCal/g; 40% fat, 46% carbohydrate, 15% protein) for the remainder of the study totaling 8 weeks.