title: Phrenic nerve transfer in the treatment of brachial plexus avulsion: an experimental study of nerve regeneration and muscle morphology in rats.
abstract: The regeneration of motor and sensory neurons and the morphological changes of the target muscle after phrenic nerve transfer were investigated in adult rats. Six months following nerve transfer, 326.0 +/- 16.31 phrenic motoneurons regenerated into musculocutaneous nerve, which is not different from the normal number of phrenic motoneurons. The regenerated motoneurons exhibited a 14% nonsignificant hypertrophy. Of the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons, 255.8 +/- 45.26 regenerated, which was significantly lower than the number of normal phrenic DRG neurons. The regenerated phrenic DRG neurons showed a 24% close-to-significant atrophy. The target muscle fiber morphology changed considerably after reinnervation. The present results suggest that the phrenic nerve has very good regenerative ability in terms of its motoneurons and a relatively insufficient sensory neuronal regeneration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hand and Plastic Surgery, University Hospital, Umeå, Sweden.
authors.forename: Cheng-Gang
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Terenghi
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mantovani
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wiberg
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020516:Brachial Plexus Neuropathies / Q000601:surgery*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000648:ultrastructure; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009138:Musculocutaneous Nerve / Q000648:ultrastructure; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D016067:Nerve Transfer / Q000379:methods*; D010791:Phrenic Nerve / Q000637:transplantation*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012016:Reference Values