Motor balance and coordination training enhances functional outcome in rat with transient middle cerebral artery occlusion.

The goal of this study was to determine if relatively complex motor training on Rota-rod involving balance and coordination plays an essential role in improving motor function in ischemic rats, as compared with simple locomotor exercise on treadmill. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats with (n=40) or without (n=40) ischemia were trained under each of three conditions: (1) motor balance and coordination training on Rota-rod; (2) simple exercise on treadmill; and (3) non-trained controls. Motor function was evaluated by a series of tests (foot fault placing, parallel bar crossing, rope and ladder climbing) before and at 14 or 28 days after training procedures in both ischemic and normal animals. Infarct volume in ischemic animals was determined with Nissl staining. Compared with both treadmill exercised and non-trained animals, Rota-rod-trained animals with or without ischemia significantly (P<0.01) improved motor performance of all tasks except for foot fault placing after 14 days of training, with normal rats having better performance. Animals trained for up to 28 days on the treadmill did not show significantly improved function. With regard to foot fault placing task, performance on foot placing was improved in ischemic rats across the three measurements at 0, 14 and 28 days regardless of training condition, while the normal group reached their best performance at the beginning of measurement. No significant differences in infarct volume were found in rats trained either with Rota-rod (47+/-4%; mean+/-S.E.), treadmill (45+/-5%) or non-exercised control (45+/-3%). In addition, no obvious difference could be detected in the location of the damage which included the dorso-lateral portion of the neostriatum and the frontoparietal cortex, the main regions supplied by the middle cerebral artery. The data suggest that complex motor training rather than simple exercise effectively improves functional outcome.