Regeneration of axons in tributary nerves

Chung Bii Jenq, Richard E. Coggeshall

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

63 Scopus citations

Abstract

The present study tests 2 hypotheses: (1) that the numbers of axons that regenerate into a tributary nerve are in part dependent on the type of lesion used to transect the axons in the parent nerve; and (2) that the numbers of axons that regenerate will be different in different tributary nerves. Axons were counted in the sural nerve and the nerve to the medial gastrocnemius muscle 8 weeks following crush, simple transection, transection with removal of 4 mm and transection with removal of 8 mm of the sciatic nerve in the rat. The counts of myelinated and unmyelinated axons are presented in the text. If axon numbers in the 2 nerves are normalized, the proportion of regenerated to normal myelinated axon numbers are approximately the same in the 2 nerves, with more regenerated axons than normal following crush, simple transection, or 4 mm gap transection and fewer following 8 mm gap transection. The unmyelinated axons behave differently. In the nerve to the medial gastrocnemius muscle, the numbers of unmyelinated axons are greater than or equal to the normal numbers following our various surgical paradigms whereas in the sural nerve there are always fewer unmylinated axons than normal. These findings indicate that the above hypotheses are correct for the nerves tested in the rat.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)107-121
Number of pages15
JournalBrain Research
Volume310
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 17 1984

Keywords

  • axon regeneration
  • sciatic nerve
  • tributary nerves

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Neuroscience
  • Molecular Biology
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Developmental Biology

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