New reliable scoring system, Toyama mouse score, to evaluate locomotor function following spinal cord injury in mice

BMC Research Notes

Chihiro Tohda²  Song-Hyen Choi¹  Tomoharu Kuboyama²  Norio Tanabe²  Michiko Shigyo² 

[1] Dong-A ST Pharm. Research Center, 47-5 Sanggal-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do 446-905, Republic of Korea;Division of Neuromedical Science, Institute of Natural Medicine, University of Toyama, 2630 Sugitani, Toyama 930-0194, Japan

关键词: TMS;    New scoring;    Mouse;    Hindlimb movement;    Spinal cord injury;   

Others  :  1132591
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-7-332

 received in 2013-10-31, accepted in 2014-05-26,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Among the variety of methods used to evaluate locomotor function following a spinal cord injury (SCI), the Basso Mouse Scale score (BMS) has been widely used for mice. However, the BMS mainly focuses on hindlimb movement rather than on graded changes in body support ability. In addition, some of the scoring methods include double or triple criteria within a single score, which likely leads to an increase in the deviation within the data. Therefore we aimed to establish a new scoring method reliable and easy to perform in mice with SCI.

Findings

Our Toyama Mouse Score (TMS) was established by rearranging and simplifying the BMS score and combining it with the Body Support Scale score (BSS). The TMS reflects changes in both body support ability and hindlimb movement. The definition of single score is made by combing multiple criteria in the BMS. The ambiguity was improved in the TMS. Using contusive SCI mice, hindlimb function was measured using the TMS, BMS and BSS systems. The TMS could distinguish changes in hindlimb movements that were evaluated as the same score by the BMS. An analysis of the coefficient of variation (CV) of score points recorded for 11 days revealed that the CV for the TMS was significantly lower than the CV obtained using the BMS. A variation in intra evaluators was lower in the TMS than in the BMS.

Conclusion

These results suggest that the TMS may be useful as a new reliable method for scoring locomotor function for SCI models.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Shigyo et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

【 参考文献 】

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