The promotion of peripheral nerve regeneration by chitooligosaccharides in the rat nerve crush injury model.
Chitooligosaccharides (COSs), the biodegradation product of chitosan, have shown many biological functions. In this study, we examined the possible benefits of treatment with COSs (M.W. 800) on regeneration of rat crushed sciatic nerves. The rats with sciatic nerve crush injury were administered intraperitoneally daily with 3 or 6mg/kg body weight of COSs over a 3-week period. During and at the end of COSs treatment, a series of functional and histological examinations, including the measurement of withdrawal reflex latency (WRL) values, walking track analysis, electrophysiological assessments, morphometric analysis of gastrocnemius muscle, as well as immunohistochemistry and electromicroscopy to regenerated sciatic nerves, were performed to evaluate the therapeutic outcomes of COSs. The experimental data demonstrated that COSs promoted peripheral nerve regeneration with the desired functional recovery in the rat sciatic nerve crush injury model. This study raises a possibility of developing COSs as a potential neuroprotective agent for peripheral nerve repair applications.
Jiang
Maorong
M
Medical college of Soochow University, Suzhou, JS 215123, PR China.
Zhuge
Xiaoming
X
Yang
Yumin
Y
Gu
Xiaosong
X
Ding
Fei
F
D000818:Animals; D048271:Chitosan / Q000378:metabolism / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005260:Female; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D009409:Nerve Crush; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects*; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D020127:Recovery of Function / Q000187:drug effects; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000187:drug effects / Q000293:injuries / Q000473:pathology
D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D009844:Oligosaccharides; D048271:Chitosan