Chapter 16 Biological Therapies in Canine Sports Medicine 419Spinal cord injuries
Spinal cord injury (SCI) may result in permanent
motor and sensory dysfunction. Therefore, there
is significant interest in regenerative therapies
aimed at the biological repair of injured nervous
tissue. Dogs with clinical SCIs represent a feasible
large‐animal model for translational studies on
spinal cord regeneration in humans. Specifically,
dogs with SCI due to IVD herniations have been
used in several studies exploiting promising labo‑
ratory interventions for the benefit of both para‑
plegic people and dogs. The types of these
treatments have ranged from acute neuroprotec‑
tive strategies to pharmacological interventions
in chronic SCI to cell‐based therapies.
Two acute neuroprotective studies have
recently been completed using the clinical
dog model. In the first study, a metallopro‑
teinase inhibitor (GM6001) in dimethyl sulfoxide
(DMSO) was injected subcutaneously in dogs
with both complete and incomplete acute inju‑
ries. A randomized, placebo‐controlled study
design was used with two control groups
receiving either saline injections or DMSO alone.
Improved functional recovery was observed for
dogs with complete SCI receiving either GM6001
in DMSO or DMSO alone, suggesting that DMSO
was likely the mechanism by which improve‑
ment was enhanced (Levine et al., 2014). A second
study was a multicenter, placebo‐controlled, pro‑
spective, randomized clinical trial evaluating
the effects of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and
methylprednisolone sodium succinate (MPSS)
on outcome in dogs with acute and complete SCI.
The study failed to detect a treatment effect of
either PEG or MPSS at 12 weeks after injury, and
the study was terminated after interim analysis
(Olby et al., 2014).
Cell‐based treatments of chronic and complete
SCI have recently been reported. A randomized,
double‐blinded trial evaluated the effects of
intraspinal olfactory ensheathing cell (OEC)
transplantation on locomotor outcome in dogs
with sensorimotor complete thoracolumbar inju‑
ries of longer than 3 months’ duration. Dogs
received intraparenchymal injections of OECs.
Outcome measures included kinematic assess‑
ment of thoracic limb–pelvic limb coordina‑
tion, lateral stability, somatosensory‐evoked
potentials, transcranial magnetic motor‐evoked
potentials, and bladder compliance. A significant
treatment effect was observed in the OEC group
for limb coordination but the remaining parame‑
ters did not indicate restoration of long tract func‑
tion. It was concluded that OECs are efficacious tolateral medialFigure 16.10 Turbo spin echo sequence with spectral presaturation with inversion recovery for fat saturation in a
transverse plane after i.v. injection of gadolinium. Both parts of the medial carpal collateral ligament (red arrowheads),
divided by the tendon of the abductor pollicis longus muscle, are mildly thickened and show contrast
enhancement.