A therapeutic strategy for acute spinal cord injury would be to reduce the progressive degeneration and disconnection of axons from their targets. Here, we describe a model to evaluate degeneration of the ascending sensory projections to the nuclei in the medulla following graded spinal cord contusions in adult female Sprague-Dawley rats. Cholera toxin B (CTB) labeling from the sciatic nerve of naive rats revealed effective labeling of the terminal fibers in the gracile nucleus at 3 days post-injection and a subpopulation of rapidly transporting fibers after 1 day. Seven days after contusions using the Infinite Horizon impactor the area of CTB-labeled terminal fibers had a negative correlation with increasing impact force. Moderate spinal contusions of around 150 kilodyne (kdyn or 0.15 x 10(-3) newton) caused a reduction to 40% in the fiber area which will enable the identification of protective as well as detrimental drugs and post-injury mechanisms. A preconditioning injury of the sciatic nerve reportedly can enhance growth of sensory axons but did not affect the terminal fiber area in the gracile nucleus. Estrogen and progesterone are protective in various systems and could therefore influence experimental outcomes when using females. However, the phase of the estrus cycle at the time of contusion or during the post-injury time did not affect the outcome of the contusion, indicating that female rats may be used without consideration of the estrus cycle. This model can readily be used to evaluate pharmacological agents for protection of sensory axons and pathophysiological mechanisms of their degeneration.