Left-right side-specific endocrine signaling complements neural pathways to mediate acute asymmetric effects of brain injury
Nikolay Lukoyanov,
Hiroyuki Watanabe,
Liliana S Carvalho,
Olga Kononenko,
Daniil Sarkisyan,
Mengliang Zhang,
Marlene Storm Andersen,
Elena A Lukoyanova,
Vladimir Galatenko,
Alex Tonevitsky,
Igor Bazov,
Tatiana Iakovleva,
Jens Schouenborg,
Georgy Bakalkin
Affiliations
Nikolay Lukoyanov
Departamento de Biomedicina da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Porto, Portugal
Hiroyuki Watanabe
Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Liliana S Carvalho
Departamento de Biomedicina da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Porto, Portugal
Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Daniil Sarkisyan
Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
Mengliang Zhang
Neuronano Research Center, Department of Experimental Medical Science, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Marlene Storm Andersen
Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Elena A Lukoyanova
Departamento de Biomedicina da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular, Porto, Portugal
Vladimir Galatenko
Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation
Alex Tonevitsky
Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation; Shemyakin–Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry RAS, Moscow, Russian Federation
Brain injuries can interrupt descending neural pathways that convey motor commands from the cortex to spinal motoneurons. Here, we demonstrate that a unilateral injury of the hindlimb sensorimotor cortex of rats with completely transected thoracic spinal cord produces hindlimb postural asymmetry with contralateral flexion and asymmetric hindlimb withdrawal reflexes within 3 hr, as well as asymmetry in gene expression patterns in the lumbar spinal cord. The injury-induced postural effects were abolished by hypophysectomy and were mimicked by transfusion of serum from animals with brain injury. Administration of the pituitary neurohormones β-endorphin or Arg-vasopressin-induced side-specific hindlimb responses in naive animals, while antagonists of the opioid and vasopressin receptors blocked hindlimb postural asymmetry in rats with brain injury. Thus, in addition to the well-established involvement of motor pathways descending from the brain to spinal circuits, the side-specific humoral signaling may also add to postural and reflex asymmetries seen after brain injury.
