QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

HOME  |   SEARCH  |   ARCHIVE  |   SUBSCRIBE  |   CONTACT  |   HELP

This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (16) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Lee, M. T. Articles by Farel, P. B. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Lee, M. T. Articles by Farel, P. B.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Neuroscience, Vol 8, 2430-2437, Copyright © 1988 by Society for Neuroscience

ARTICLE

Guidance of regenerating motor axons in larval and juvenile bullfrogs

MT Lee and PB Farel
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599.

The segmental distribution of regenerating bullfrog motor axons was mapped in advanced tadpoles and juvenile frogs by stimulating selected muscle nerves and recording from the distal ends of the 3 lumbar ventral roots (VRs) that innervate the hindlimb. When motoneurons were axotomized by VR transection, they reestablished their original innervation fields, rarely, if ever, growing beyond the territory normally supplied by their spinal segment. However, when motoneurons were axotomized in the spinal nerves at the level of the hindlimb plexus, some of them regenerated into limb nerves that lay outside the axons' normal segmental boundaries, and many regenerated into the medial femoral cutaneous nerve, a pathway normally limited to sensory axons. These observations suggest that the ultimate destinations of regenerating axons are largely determined by structures the axons encounter as they penetrate the distal nerve stumps. Thus, axons regenerating from a severed VR grow into that root's own distal stump and reinnervate the hindlimb in a manner that is segmentally appropriate; axons transected near the plexus have access to the pathways of sensory, as well as motor, axons in all 3 lumbar segments, and establish innervation fields that are inappropriate for their segment of origin and their motor function.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. D. Madison, S. J. Archibald, R. Lacin, and C. Krarup Factors Contributing to Preferential Motor Reinnervation in the Primate Peripheral Nervous System J. Neurosci., December 15, 1999; 19(24): 11007 - 11016. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. D. Madison, S. J. Archibald, and T. M. Brushart Reinnervation Accuracy of the Rat Femoral Nerve by Motor and Sensory Neurons J. Neurosci., September 15, 1996; 16(18): 5698 - 5703. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home  |   Search  |   Archive  |   Subscribe  |   Contact  |   Help