Luther Gill
DPT, Hampton University
BS, Sports Medicine/Athletic Training, University of Cincinnati

Student Profile:
Luther Gill is a Doctoral Student in the Rehabilitation Science Program at the University of Florida. He received a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Hampton University in Virginia and a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports Medicine/Athletic Training from the University of Cincinnati in Ohio. Luther’s prior clinical experience includes treating individuals with spinal cord injuries and stroke. Luther joined the NMPT program in his second year of doctoral studies and his current studies focus on respiratory neurophysiology and recovery of breathing after spinal cord injury. Luther is mentored by Dr. David Fuller.

Research Project Description:
Respiratory impairment is the leading cause of death and disability after high cervical (C1-C4) spinal cord injury (SCI). Neural drive to the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles is often interrupted after injury resulting in paralysis and respiratory insufficiency. It is now appreciated that even relatively short periods (e.g. <24 hours) of diaphragm inactivity and can cause significant muscle fiber atrophy. Accordingly, chronic SCI may result in substantial atrophy and remodeling of the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles. However, the relative impact of respiratory muscle dysfunction on breathing after SCI has received little attention as the majority of studies focued on enhancing neural recovery of respiration. We are using an animal SCI model (high cervical spinal cord hemilesion in the rat) to study the response of the diaphram muscle to chronic SCI. Cervical hemilesion results in transient paralyses of the ipsilateral hemidiaphragm. However, a weak recovery of diaphragm activity occurs due to spontaneous neuroplasticity processes (Fuller et al. 2008; Exp. Neurol.) Humans with incomplete cervical SCI often experience a similar partial recovery of diaphragm activity. Accordingly, the primary goals of Luther’s work are to characterize diaphragm muscle fiber atrophy in a C2 hemilesion model and investigate mechanisms focused on attenuation of atrophy after injury.

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