Crossing nerve transfer drives sensory input–dependent plasticity for motor recovery after brain injury

作者：Zhengrun Gao, Zhen Pang, Gaowei Lei, Yi‐Ming Chen, Zeyu Cai, Shuai Zhu, Weishan Lin, Zilong Qiu, Yizheng Wang, Yundong Shen, Wendong Xu · 发表于：Science Advances · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1126/sciadv.abn5899 · 被引用次数：24 · 研究领域：Nerve injury and regeneration、Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies、Spinal Cord Injury Research

Restoring limb movements after central nervous system injury remains a substantial challenge. Recent studies proved that crossing nerve transfer surgery could rebuild physiological connectivity between the contralesional cortex and the paralyzed arm to compensate for the lost function after brain injury. However, the neural mechanism by which this surgery mediates motor recovery remains still unclear. Here, using a clinical mouse model, we showed that this surgery can restore skilled forelimb function in adult mice with unilateral cortical lesion by inducing cortical remapping and promoting corticospinal tract sprouting. After reestablishing the ipsilateral descending pathway, resecting of the artificially rebuilt peripheral nerve did not affect motor improvements. Furthermore, retaining the sensory afferent, but not the motor efferent, of the transferred nerve was sufficient for inducing brain remapping and facilitating motor restoration. Thus, our results demonstrate that surgically rebuilt sensory input triggers neural plasticity for accelerating motor recovery, which provides an approach for treating central nervous system injuries.