Cervical spinal cord injury upregulates ventral spinal 5-HT2A receptors

Following chronic C-2 spinal hemisection (C2HS), crossed spinal pathways to phrenic motoneurons exhibit a slow, spontaneous increase in efficacy by a serotonin (5-HT)-dependent mechanism associated with 5-HT2A receptor activation. Further, the spontaneous appearance of cross-phrenic activity following C2HS is accelerated and enhanced by exposure to chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH). We hypothesized that chronic C2HS would increase 5-HT and 5-HT2A receptor expression in ventral cervical spinal segments containing phrenic motoneurons. In addition, we hypothesized that CIH exposure would further increase 5-HT and 5-HT2A receptor density in this region. Control, sham-operated, and C2HS Sprague-Dawley rats were studied following normoxia or CIH (11% O-2-air; 5-min intervals; nights 7-14 post-surgery). At 2 weeks post-surgery, ventral spinal gray matter extending from C-4 and C-5 was isolated ipsilateral and contralateral to C2HS. Neither C2HS nor CIH altered 5-HT concentration measured with an ELISA on either side of the spinal cord. However 5-HT2A receptor expression assessed with immunoblots increased in ipsilateral gray matter following C2HS, an effect independent of CIH. Immunocytochemistry revealed increased 5-HT2A receptor expression on identified phrenic motoneurons (p < 0.05), as well as in the surrounding gray matter. Contralateral to injury, 5-HT2A receptor expression was elevated in CIH, but not normoxic C2HS rats (p < 0.05). Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that spontaneous increase in 5-HT2A receptor expression on or near phrenic motoneurons contributes to strengthened crossed-spinal synaptic pathways to phrenic motoneurons following C2HS.