James A. Haley Va Medical Center

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Medicine

A Contusion Model of Severe Spinal Cord Injury in Rats

Vibhor Krishna¹, Hampton Andrews¹, Xing Jin², Jin Yu¹, Abhay Varma¹, Xuejun Wen³, Mark Kindy¹

¹Department of Neuroscience, Division of Neurosurgery, Medical University of South Carolina, ²Bioengineering, Clemson University, ³Clemson-MUSC Bioengineering Joint Program

A contusion model of severe spinal cord injury is described. Detailed pre-operative, operative and post-operative steps are described to obtain a consistent model.

Behavior

Elevated Plus Maze Test Combined with Video Tracking Software to Investigate the Anxiolytic Effect of Exogenous Ketogenic Supplements

Csilla Ari¹, Dominic P. D’Agostino^2,3, David M. Diamond^1,2, Mark Kindy^4,5,6, Collin Park¹, Zsolt Kovács⁷

¹Department of Psychology, Hyperbaric Neuroscience Research Laboratory, University of South Florida, ²Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology, Metabolic Medicine Research Laboratory, Morsani College of Medicine, University of South Florida, ³Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, ⁴Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of South Florida, ⁵James A. Haley VA Medical Center, ⁶Shriners Hospital for Children, ⁷Savaria Department of Biology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University

Here, we present a protocol to investigate changes in the anxiety level of rodent animal models. The elevated plus maze (EPM) test, used together with a video tracking software, provides a reliable method to document the effect of various potential anxiolytic treatments in preclinical laboratory scenarios.