Perilesional Treatment with Chondroitinase ABC and Motor Training Promote Functional Recovery after Stroke

Ischemic stroke insults may lead to chronic functional limitations that adversely affect patient movements. Partial motor recovery is thought to be sustained by neuronal plasticity, particularly in areas close to the lesion site. It is still unknown if treatments acting exclu-sively on cortical plasticity of perilesional areas could result in be-havioral amelioration. We tested whether enhancing plasticity in the ipsilesional cortex using local injections of chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) could promote recovery of skilled motor function in a focal cortical ischemia of forelimb motor cortex in rats. Using the skilled reaching test, we found that acute and delayed ChABC treatment induced recovery of impaired motor skills in treated rats. vGLUT1, vGLUT2, and vGAT staining indicated that functional recovery after acute ChABC treatment was associated with local plastic modifi-cation of the excitatory cortical circuitry positive for VGLUT2. ChABC effects on vGLUT2 staining were present only in rats under-going behavioral training. Thus, the combination of treatments target-ing the CSPG component of the extracellular matrix in perilesional areas and rehabilitation could be sufficient to enhance functional re-covery from a focal stroke