Currently around 180,000-230,000 individuals are living with spinal cord injuries throughout the world.

There are limited therapies available for SCI patients.

New therapies are being tested• Functional Neuromuscular Stimulation• Weight bearing treadmill therapy

Do treadmill therapy and Functional Neuromuscular Stimulation therapy improve sensory motor control in rats with spinal cord injury?

PredictionPrediction Rats receiving FNS therapy and

treadmill therapy should have a greater over all recovery and should improve on the horizontal ladder assessment at a faster rate.

Rats are used due to similar physiology of SCI New rats were acclimated for a week, then pre-

trained for the following week. Rats received a high injury level of 170 kdyne. Rats assessed weekly in conjunction with other

behavioral tests› 2D & 3D Kinematics, BBB test

Pre-injury 7 DPI

14 DPI

21 DPI

28 DPI

35 DPI

42 DPI

Pre-Training

Recovery

Animals tested on Ladder once a week for 5 weeks.

Rats’ ability to traverse horizontal ladder was tested once a week after initial injury.

Points were awarded for each trial depending on the number of foot faults.

A foot fault is any mistake that the rat makes where their foot falls below the ladder and hits the counter platform underneath.

Clip shows rat walking across horizontal ladder. Each time the rat’s foot misses the rung it is counted as a foot fault.

The average points decrease drastically between pre and post injury measurements.

FNS therapy rats had a higher average points after 14 DPI than non-therapy and treadmill therapy.

At the end of 42 DPI there was no significant difference between the average points of the three therapies.

Not all animals have results for 42 DPI due to different complications; this could cause the data at day 42 to be skewed.

The similar result for all three therapies could be attributed to the high level of injury the animals received.

This high injury level could inhibit the adequate recovery of the sensory motor skills need for the horizontal ladder.

More experiments are being performed with a lower injury level.