Public release date: 20-Nov-2007

Tampa, FL — The blood-spinal cord barrier is functionally impaired in areas of motor neuron damage in mice modeling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), report researchers at the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair. The barrier disruption was found in mice at both early and late stages of ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

The study, “Evidence of Compromised Blood-Spinal Cord Barrier in Early and Late Symptomatic SOD1 Mice Modeling ALS,” appears online in PLoS ONE, an international, peer-reviewed journal published by the Public Library of Science.

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) and blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) control the exchange of substances between the blood and the central nervous system. These barriers, formed by cells lining the blood vessels in the brain and the spinal cord, protect nerve cells by restricting entry of potentially harmful substances and cells of the immune system. Impairment in cellular machinery of the BBB and BSCB may lead to a barrier breakdown in many brain and spinal cord diseases or injuries.

“We detected vascular leakage in the cervical and lumbar spinal cord microvessels of ALS mice not only at the end-stage of disease but also in those with early disease symptoms,” said lead author Svitlana Garbuzova-Davis, PhD, DSc, assistant professor in the USF Center for Aging and Brain Repair. “This may suggest that large molecules such as the antibody IgG and other blood proteins appear in the spinal cord due to vascular leakage, one possible mechanism accelerating motor neuron damage.”