title: Restorative effect and mechanism of mecobalamin on sciatic nerve crush injury in mice.
abstract: Mecobalamin, a form of vitamin B12 containing a central metal element (cobalt), is one of the most important mediators of nervous system function. In the clinic, it is often used to accelerate recovery of peripheral nerves, but its molecular mechanism remains unclear. In the present study, we performed sciatic nerve crush injury in mice, followed by daily intraperitoneal administration of mecobalamin (65 μg/kg or 130 μg/kg) or saline (negative control). Walking track analysis, histomorphological examination, and quantitative real-time PCR showed that mecobalamin significantly improved functional recovery of the sciatic nerve, thickened the myelin sheath in myelinated nerve fibers, and increased the cross-sectional area of target muscle cells. Furthermore, mecobalamin upregulated mRNA expression of growth associated protein 43 in nerve tissue ipsilateral to the injury, and of neurotrophic factors (nerve growth factor, brain-derived nerve growth factor and ciliary neurotrophic factor) in the L4-6 dorsal root ganglia. Our findings indicate that the molecular mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of mecobalamin after sciatic nerve injury involves the upregulation of multiple neurotrophic factor genes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Minquan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Keqin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Yanglin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Wuxi No. 2 People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Guoxing
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
keywords: gene expression; mecobalamin; molecular mechanism; nerve regeneration; nerve repair; neural regeneration; neuroprotective effect; neurotrophic factor; peripheral nerve injury; sciatic nerve; vitamin B12