Effects of treadmill exercise on the motor function and mTOR signal pathway in motor cortex of adult mice after spinal cord injury

Objective To investigate the effects of treadmill exercise on the motor function and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signal pathway in motor cortex of adult mice with spinal cord injury. Methods Thirty C57BL/6J mice were randomly divided into sham group, model group and treadmill exercise group (10 each). All mice received pre-training for 3 days, and those in model group and treadmill exercise group were crushed with C5 after pre-training in dorsal cortico-spinal tract, left cortico-spinal tract and rubro-spinal tract. The lamina was removed without damaging the spinal cord in sham group. Mice in treadmill exercise group began to run on the platform 1 week after injury, 5 days every week for 4 weeks. The motor function recovery was assessed with Basso Mouse Scale (BMS), horizontal ladder and cylinder rearing tests. The expression of insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and the phosphorylated level of tyrosine kinase receptor B (TrkB), insulin-like growth factor 1