Impact of activity-based training on bowel function in a rat model of spinal cord injury

J Neurotrauma. 2023 Dec 20. doi: 10.1089/neu.2023.0486. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTSignificant bowel-related issues after spinal cord injury (SCI) that affect morbidity and quality of life include diminished bowel motility, loss of sphincter control, gastric ulcers, autonomic dysreflexia, pain, diarrhea, constipation, and fecal incontinence. Clinical diagnoses and research in humans have largely relied on anorectal manometry (ARM) procedures to increase understanding of the functional effects of SCI on colorectal motility and defecation physiology. Recent pre-clinical rodent studies have also used ARM to further our understanding of bowel-related dysfunctions post-SCI. In the present study, the benefits of different activity-based training (ABT) durations on bowel function were examined. Six groups of male rats including two non-trained (uninjured and SCI) and four ABT (quadrupedal stepping on a treadmill) groups. All ABT animals received four weeks of one-hour daily stepping beginning two weeks post-SCI followed by variable amounts for four additional weeks (none; daily; once a week; daily for final 4th week only). Outcome measures included fecal output (home cage; metabolic cage) throughout the study and terminal measurements (post 8-week ABT) of external anal sphincter electromyography, resting anorectal pressure, and giant contraction activation under urethane anesthesia. The results indicate that treadmill training normalized defecation amount based on feces weight an...
Source: Anal Sci - Category: Chemistry Authors: Source Type: research