Genome-Wide Gene Expression Profiling of Spinal Cord Injury in Rat

The aneurysm clip impact-compression model of spinal cord injury (SCI) in animals mimics the primary mechanism of SCI in human, i.e. acute impact and persisting compression; and its histo-pathological and behavioural outcomes are extensively similar to the human SCI. In order to understand the distinct molecular events underlying this injury model, an analysis of global gene expression of the acute, subacute and chronic stages of a moderate to severe injury to the rat spinal cord was conducted using a microarray gene chip approach.