Gait Analysis in Rodents

Abstract

Gait abnormality might occur due to problems in the nervous system and the musculoskeletal system. The problems in the nervous system, that impairs the patient’s mobility, includes neurodegenerative disorder in the brain and lesions in the spinal cord.

In the preclinical investigation of the disease development and progression, animal models are widely used. For evaluating the motoric symptoms, sensitive assays with a quantifiable output are essential. One of the behavioral tests, which is commonly used, is an automated runway locomotion analysis for rodents, named CatWalk XT (Noldus Information Technology, Wageningen, Netherlands).

The research aims to develop clinically relevant feature descriptors and gait analysis in rodent by implementing and adapting machine learning, signal processing, image processing and data analysis approaches.

 

The analysis of alpha-synuclein mice gait was studied in sub-project. This alpha-synuclein mouse model is relevant to a neurodegenerative disorder, namely Parkinson’s disease. Based on signal processing approaches, new parameters related to mice locomotion sway has been developed in the study.

Collaborators

  • Georgia Minakaki, Frederik Bode, Stefanie Menges, Holger Meixner, PD Dr. med. Jochen Klucken and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Winkler
  • Prof. Dr. med. Rolf Schröder and Dr. Frederik Chevessier
  • Dr. Fabio Canneva and Prof. Dr. Stephan von Hörsten
  • Prof Dr. Olaf H. Riess and Nicolas Casadei
  • Ivanna K. Timotius, Dr. Cristian Pasluosta and Prof. Dr. Björn Eskofier

Related publication

Longitudinal gait data from alpha-synuclein rat model (Parkinson’s-disease-relevant) and BACHD mouse model (Huntington-disease-relevant) are studied in this sub-project.

Collaborators

  • PD Dr. med. Jochen Klucken and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Winkler
  • Sandra Moceri, Johanna Habermeyer, Anne-Christine Plank, Dr. Fabio Canneva and Prof. Dr. Stephan von Hörsten
  • Ivanna K. Timotius and Prof. Dr. Björn Eskofier

Related publication

The recovery development in the gait of Thoracic 8 spinal cord injuries rats is studied in this sub-project.

Collaborators

  • Dr. rer. nat. Radhika Puttagunta and Dr. rer. nat. Beatrice Sandner – Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany
  • Dr. rer. nat. Veronica Estrada and Hans W. Müller – University of Düsseldorf, Germany
  • Daniel Garcia-Ovejero and Florencia Labombarda – Hospital Nacional de Paraplejicos (SESCAM), Spain
  • Lara Bieler and Sebastien Couillard-Despres – Paracelsus Medical University, Austria
  • Jochen Klucken and Jürgen Winkler – University Hospital Erlangen, Germany
  • Ivanna K. Timotius and Prof. Dr. Björn Eskofier