title: Inaccurate projection of rat soleus motoneurons: a comparison of nerve repair techniques.
abstract: The objectives of this study were 1) to determine the degree to which soleus motoneurons find their appropriate target following crush and transection injuries to the sciatic nerve, and 2) to determine whether repair of a transected 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 transection 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedics and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, UCSD School of Medicine and VA Medical Center, La Jolla, California, USA.
authors.forename: S C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Bodine-Fowler
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moskovitz
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Abrams
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Botte
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D018995:Myosin Heavy Chains