Laura Sundberg1, Juan Herrera1, Ponnada Narayana1
1Diagnostic and Interventional Imaging, The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, TX, USA
Angiogenesis, an essential component of wound repair, is known to occur in response to spinal cord injury (SCI), yet its role in neurological recovery is controversial. The purpose of these studies was to modulate angiogenic activity, via direct epicenter administration of VEGF, a potent pro-angiogenic factor, or anti-VEGF to suppress angiogenic activity, and investigate the outcome in experimental SCI using in vivo longitudinal MRI. Lesion volume was determined by high resolution anatomical MRI to evaluate the evolution of the lesion over a period of 56 days and the data was correlated with a variety of neurobehavioral and neurosensory assays.
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