Adam B Willits, Leena Kader, Olivia Eller, Emily Roberts, Bailey Bye, Taylor Strope, Bret D Freudenthal, Shahid Umar, Sree Chintapalli, Kartik Shankar, Dong Pei, Julie Christianson, Kyle M Baumbauer, Erin E Young
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Spinal cord injury (SCI) affects roughly 300,000 Americans with 17,000 new cases added annually. In addition to paralysis, 60% of people with SCI develop neurogenic bowel (NB), a syndrome characterized by slow colonic transit, constipation, and chronic abdominal pain. The knowledge gap surrounding NB mechanisms after SCI means that interventions are primarily symptom-focused and largely ineffective. The goal of the present studies was to identify mechanism(s) that initiate and maintain NB after SCI as a critical first step in the development of evidence-based, novel therapeutic treatment options...
2024: Neurobiology of Pain