抄録
Constraint-induced (CI) therapy is a method to promote the use of damaged function with a reduction of the use of undamaged normal function. Recently, CI therapy is known as a useful method to promote motor functional recovery after brain injury. However, the effect of CI therapy on the normal function by forced-disuse has not been clarified yet. To investigate whether CI therapy causes the decrease of normal functional ability (undesirable dysfunction), animals were restricted their one forelimb continuously for one week followed by behavioral assessment and Argyrophil III staining. Staircase test, horizontal ladder test and cylinder test revealed that skilled reaching of forelimb use in staircase, coordination and step in ladder walking movement, and symmetric use of forelimb in cylinder were not changed. Argyrophil III staining to detect early histological damaged state indicated that positive cells were appeared in hippocampus CA1/CA2 pyramidal cell layer bilaterally, while those were not detected in sensorimotor cortex and spinal cord. Data suggest that CI therapy did not show the decrease of normal functional ability, but has a slight effect on histological damage of hippocampus, probably due to stress by continuous restraint. [J Physiol Sci. 2008;58 Suppl:S195]
