The majority of spinal cord injuries (SCIs) are cervical (cSCI), leading to a marked reduction in respiratory capacity. We aimed to investigate the effect of hemicontusion models of cSCI on both diaphragm activity and respiratory function to serve as preclinical models of cervical SCI. Since phrenic motoneuron pools are located at the C3-C5 spinal level, we investigated two models of preclinical cSCI mimicking human forms of injury, namely, one above (C3 hemicontusion-C3HC) and one below phrenic motoneuron pools (C6HC) in wild-type swiss OF-1 mice, and we compared their effects on respiratory function using whole-body plethysmography and on diaphragm activity using electromyography (EMG). At 7 days post-surgery, both C3HC and C6HC damaged spinal cord integrity above the lesion level, suggesting that C6HC potentially alters C5 motoneurons. Although both models led to decreased diaphragmatic EMG activity in the injured hemidiaphragm compared to the intact one (-46% and -26% in C3HC and C6HC, respectively, both p = 0.02), only C3HC led to a significant reduction in tidal volume and minute ventilation compared to sham surgery (-25% and -20% vs. baseline). Moreover, changes in EMG amplitude between respiratory bursts were observed post-C3HC, reflecting a change in phrenic motoneuronal excitability. Hence, C3HC and C6HC models induced alteration in respiratory function proportionally to injury level, and the C3HC model is a more appropriate model for interventional studies aiming to restore respiratory function in cSCI.
Keywords: contusion model; diaphragmatic activity; phrenic motoneurons; respiratory function; spinal cord injury.