Probing the influence of myelin and glia on the tensile properties of the spinal cord.

Although glia have been historically classified as the structurally supporting cells of the central nervous system, their role in tissue mechanics is still largely unstudied. The influence of myelin and glia on the mechanical properties of spinal cord tissue was examined by testing embryonic day 18 chick embryo spinal cords in uniaxial tension following disruption of the glial matrix using either ethidium bromide (EB) or an antibody against galactocerebroside (alphaGalC) in the presence of complement. Demyelination was confirmed by myelin basic protein immunoreactivity and quantified using osmium tetroxide staining. A substantial loss of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes concurrent with demyelination was observed following EB injection but not alphaGalC injection. No morphological changes were observed following injection of saline or IgG with complement as controls for EB and alphaGalC. Demyelinated spinal cords demonstrated significantly lower stiffness and ultimate tensile stress than myelinated spinal cords. No significant differences were observed in the tensile response between the two demyelinating protocols. The results demonstrate that the glial matrix provides significant mechanical support to the spinal cord, and suggests that myelin and cellular coupling of axons via the glial matrix in large part dictates the tensile response of the tissue.

Mechanical properties of dura mater from the rat brain and spinal cord.

The dura mater is the outermost and most substantial meningial layer of central nervous system (CNS) tissue that acts as a protective membrane for the brain and spinal cord. In animal models of traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, mechanical insults are often delivered directly to the dura to injure the underlying tissue. As such, including a description of the mechanical properties of dura mater is critical for biomechanical analyses of these models. We have characterized the mechanical response of dura mater from the rat brain and spinal cord in uniaxial tension. Testing was performed at low (0.0014 sec(-1)) and high (19.42 sec(-1)) strain rates. Both rat cranial dura and spinal dura demonstrated non-linear stress-strain responses characteristic of collagenous soft tissues. The non-linear increase in stress lagged in the spinal dura compared to the cranial dura. The slow rate data was fit to a one-term Ogden hyperelastic constitutive law, and significant differences were observed for the stiffness, G, and the parameter, alpha, which nominally introduces non-linearity. High strain rate stress-relaxation tests were performed to 10% strain, which was held for 10 sec. The relaxation was fit to a four-term Prony series exponential decay. Cranial dura and spinal dura demonstrated similar overall relaxation, but significant differences were identified in the distribution of the relaxation over the Prony series parameters, which demonstrated that cranial dura tended to relax faster. Polarized light microscopy revealed that the structural entities of spinal dura were aligned in the axial direction, whereas cranial dura did not demonstrate a preferential alignment. This was confirmed qualitatively with Masson's Tri-chrome and Verhoeff's Van Gieson staining for collagen and elastin, which also indicated greater elastin content for the spinal dura than for the cranial dura.