Calpain fosters the hyperexcitability of motoneurons after spinal cord injury and leads to spasticity
- CNRS Aix Marseille University, France
Abstract
Up-regulation of the persistent sodium current (INaP) and down-regulation of the potassium/chloride extruder KCC2 lead to spasticity after spinal cord injury (SCI). We here identified calpain as the driver of the up- and down-regulation of INaP and KCC2, respectively, in neonatal rat lumbar motoneurons. Few days after SCI, neonatal rats developed behavioral signs of spasticity with the emergence of both hyperreflexia and abnormal involuntary muscle contractions on hindlimbs. At the same time, in vitro isolated lumbar spinal cords became hyperreflexive and displayed numerous spontaneous motor outputs. Calpain-I expression paralleled with a proteolysis of voltage-gated sodium (Nav) channels and KCC2. Acute inhibition of calpains reduced this proteolysis, restored the motoneuronal expression of Nav and KCC2, normalized INaP and KCC2 function, and curtailed spasticity. In sum, by up- and down-regulating INaP and KCC2, the calpain-mediated proteolysis of Nav and KCC2 drives the hyperexcitability of motoneurons which leads to spasticity after SCI.
Data availability
All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files. Source data files have been provided for all Figures and Supplementary Figures of the manuscript.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR CalpaSCI-16-CE16-0004)
- Frédéric Brocard
Institut Recherche sur la Moelle Epiniere (SPV/MB/173439)
- Frédéric Brocard
Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FDT20170437125)
- Frédéric Brocard
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: We made all efforts to minimize animal suffering and the number of animals used. All animal care and use conformed to the French regulations (Décret 2010-118) and were approved by the local ethics committee (Comité d'Ethique en Neurosciences INT-Marseille, CE Nb A1301404, authorization Nb 2018110819197361).
Copyright
© 2019, Plantier et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Calpain fosters the hyperexcitability of motoneurons after spinal cord injury and leads to spasticity
eLife 8:e51404.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.51404
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