title: The lateral thoracic nerve and the cutaneous maximus muscle--a novel in vivo model system for nerve degeneration and regeneration studies.
abstract: We report a novel in vivo mouse model system to study regeneration of injured motor nerve and spatiotemporal pattern of denervation in experimental nerve diseases. The lateral thoracic nerve (LTN), as a pure motor nerve, innervates the cutaneous maximus muscle (CMM) by some of the shortest and the longest motor nerve fibers in the mouse body. Its branches and nerve terminals can be imaged in whole mount preparations. Here we describe the branching pattern of the LTN and its innervation of the CMM, and characterize degeneration and regeneration over time after a LTN crush by morphological and electrophysiological analyses. We demonstrate the utility of this model in a well-established neurotoxicity paradigm and in a genetic disease model of the peripheral neuropathy. Furthermore, this system enables punch biopsies that allow repeated and multi-location examinations for LTN regeneration and CMM reinnervation over time. The presence of the LTN and the CMM in a variety of species and its easy accessibility suggests that this in vivo model system offers considerable promise for future nerve degeneration and regeneration research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. bpan2@jhmi.edu
authors.forename: Baohan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Benedikt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Grünewald
authors.forename: Thien
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farah
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Polydefkis
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.forename: Lawrence P
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Schramm
authors.forename: Klaus V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Toyka
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Höke
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Griffin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D051379:Mice; D008818:Mice, Neurologic Mutants; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008959:Models, Neurological; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000294:innervation* / Q000502:physiology; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D009469:Neuromuscular Junction / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D014855:Wallerian Degeneration / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*