Chondroitinase enhances cortical map plasticity and increases functionally active sprouting axons after brain injury.

Abstract The beneficial effect of interventions with chondroitinase ABC enzyme to reduce axon growth-inhibitory chondroitin sulphate side chains after central nervous system injuries has been mainly attributed to enhanced axonal sprouting. After traumatic brain injury (TBI), it is unknown whether newly sprouting axons that occur as a result of interventional strategies are able to functionally contribute to existing circuitry, and it is uncertain whether maladaptive sprouting occurs to increase the well-known risk for seizure activity after TBI. Here, we show that after a controlled cortical impact injury in rats, chondroitinase infusion into injured cortex at 30 min and 3 days reduced c-Fos+ cell staining resulting from the injury alone at 1 week postinjury, indicating that at baseline, abnormal spontaneous activity is likely to be reduced, not increased, with this type of intervention. c-Fos+ cell staining elicited by neural activity from stimulation of the affected forelimb 1 week after injury was sign...