Abstract
The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the degree to which soleus motoneurons find their appropriate target following crush and transaction injuries to the sciatic nerve, and 2) to determine whether repair of a transacted nerve with a silicone tube leads to greater specificity of reinnervation and recovery of muscle function than the standard epineurial suture repair method. Sixty adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one of three sciatic nerve injury groups: crush injury, transection with epineurial suture repair, or transection with a silicone tube repair. The degree to which soleus motoneurons were able to find their appropriate target following a sciatic nerve injury was examined using a double labeling dye technique in which the original soleus motor pool was labeled with fast blue and reinnervating motoneurons were labeled with Dil. Soleus motoneurons were able to find their appropriate target following a crush injury. The accuracy of reinnervation following a transection injury and repair, however, was relatively poor. Only 14% of the original soleus motoneurons found the correct target following a transaction injury. Repair of a lesioned nerve with a silicone tube and a 5-mm gap as opposed to epineurial sutures did not increase the specificity of reinnervation or the degree of muscle recovery.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 29-37 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Muscle and Nerve |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1997 |
Keywords
- denervation
- reinnervation
- silicone tube repair
- specificity muscle adaptation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Neuroscience(all)