title: Passive and active exercise improve regeneration and muscle reinnervation after peripheral nerve injury in the rat.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lesions of peripheral nerves cause loss of motor and sensory function and also lead to hyperreflexia and hyperalgesia. Activity-dependent therapies promote axonal regeneration and functional recovery and may improve sensory-motor coordination and restoration of adequate circuitry at the spinal level.
  
  
  METHODS
  We compared the effects of passive (bicycle) and active (treadmill) exercise on nerve regeneration and modulation of the spinal H reflex after transection and repair of the rat sciatic nerve. Animals were evaluated during 2 months using electrophysiological, functional, and histological methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Moderate exercise for 1 hour/day, either active treadmill walking or passive cycling, improved muscle reinnervation, increased the number of regenerated axons in the distal nerve, and reduced the increased excitability of spinal reflexes after nerve lesion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Maintenance of denervated muscle activity and afferent input, by active or passive exercise, may increase trophic factor release to act on regenerating axons and to modulate central neuronal plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Group of Neuroplasticity and Regeneration, Institute of Neurosciences and Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra E-08193, Spain.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Udina
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Puigdemasa
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Navarro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor / Q000502:physiology; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000502:physiology*; D020426:Sciatic Neuropathy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy