title: L-carnitine alleviates sciatic nerve crush injury in rats: functional and electron microscopy assessments.
abstract: Several studies have demonstrated that L-carnitine exhibits neuroprotective effects on injured sciatic nerve of rats with diabetes mellitus. It is hypothesized that L-carnitine exhibits neuroprotective effects on injured sciatic nerve of rats. Rat sciatic nerve was crush injured by a forceps and exhibited degenerative changes. After intragastric administration of 50 and 100 mg/kg L-carnitine for 30 days, axon area, myelin sheath area, axon diameter, myelin sheath diameter, and numerical density of the myelinated axons of injured sciatic nerve were similar to normal, and the function of injured sciatic nerve also improved significantly. These findings suggest that L-carnitine exhibits neuroprotective effects on sciatic nerve crush injury in rats.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ummü Zeynep
authors.initials: UZ
authors.lastname: Avsar
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Umit
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Avsar
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aydin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Muhammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yayla
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Agrı University, Agrı, Turkey.
authors.forename: Berna
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ozturkkaragoz
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Agrı University, Agrı, Turkey.
authors.forename: Harun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Un
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saritemur
authors.affiliation: Department of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Ataturk University, Yakutiye, Erzurum, Turkey.
authors.forename: Tolga
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mercantepe
keywords: L-carnitine; axon; crush injury; electron microscopy; myelin sheath; nerve regeneration; neural regeneration; neuroprotection; peripheral nerve injury; sciatic nerve