Survival and Axonal Outgrowth of the Mauthner Cell Following Spinal Cord Crush Does Not Drive Post-injury Startle Responses

Abstract

A pair of Mauthner cells (M-cells) can be found in the hindbrain of most teleost fish, as well as amphibians and lamprey. The axons of these reticulospinal neurons cross the midline and synapse on interneurons and motoneurons as they descend the length of the spinal cord. The M-cell initiates fast C-type startle responses (fast C-starts) in goldfish and zebrafish triggered by abrupt acoustic/vibratory stimuli. Starting about 70 days after whole spinal cord crush, less robust startle responses with longer latencies manifest in adult goldfish, Carassius auratus. The morphological and electrophysiological identifiability of the M-cell provides a unique opportunity to study cellular responses to spinal cord injury and the relation of axonal regrowth to a defined behavior. After spinal cord crush at the spinomedullary junction about one-third of the damaged M-axons of adult goldfish send at least one sprout past the wound site between 56 and 85 days postoperatively. These caudally projecting sprouts follow a more lateral trajectory relative to their position in the fasciculus longitudinalis medialis of control fish. Other sprouts, some from the same axon, follow aberrant pathways that include rostral projections, reversal of direction, midline crossings, neuromas, and projection out the first ventral root. Stimulating M-axons in goldfish that had post-injury startle behavior between 198 and 468 days postoperatively resulted in no or minimal EMG activity in trunk and tail musculature as compared to control fish. Although M-cells can survive for at least 468 day (∼1.3 years) after spinal cord crush, maintain regrowth, and elicit putative trunk EMG responses, the cell does not appear to play a substantive role in the emergence of acoustic/vibratory-triggered responses. We speculate that aberrant pathway choice of this neuron may limit its role in the recovery of behavior and discuss structural and functional properties of alternative candidate neurons that may render them more supportive of post-injury startle behavior.

Selected Research and Dramatic Surgery Fish Cases of Incisive Complete in Fish Surgical

“…In neurological studies involving ablation of specific nervous system targets 2% agar gel in physiological saline (Weltzien et al 2003;Merriam-Webster 2022) or vaseline-paraffin oil capped with anchored vinyl polysiloxane impression material (Zottoli et al 2021) have been in use to seal and fill the tissue void in fish (Craig 2005).…”

Full regeneration of descending corticotropin-releasing hormone axons after a complete spinal cord injury in lampreys

“…In recent years there has been a surge of interest to study animal models of spontaneous and successful regeneration after a spinal cord injury (SCI). For example, many fish species, in contrast to most mammals (including humans), can spontaneously regenerate descending axons after a SCI (e.g., zebrafish: [1] ; goldfish: [2] , [3] ; lampreys: [4] ). One of the animal models for the study of successful and spontaneous spinal cord regeneration is the sea lamprey Petromyzon marinus .…”