Elsevier

Experimental Neurology

Volume 129, Issue 2, October 1994, Pages 217-224
Experimental Neurology

Regular Article
Comparison of Regenerative and Reinnervating Capabilities of Different Functional Types of Nerve Fibers

https://doi.org/10.1006/exnr.1994.1163Get rights and content

Abstract

Functional reinnervation of sweat glands (SGs), skin, and muscle in the mouse paw after sciatic nerve lesions was evaluated to allow comparisons of the regeneration efficiency of different functional types of nerve fibers. In four groups of mice the sciatic nerve was crushed, sectioned, and left unrepaired or repaired by suture or tubulization. Reappearance of SG secretion and pinprick responses occurred slightly earlier than recordings of compound muscle and nerve action potentials in all groups. The degree of reinnervation, with respect to preoperative control values, of SGs and skin nociceptors was higher than the amplitude of the action potentials, mainly when the nerve injury was severe. The chances for recovery progressively decreased with the severity of the lesion, affecting the larger nerve fibers most. These results indicate that, after injuries of peripheral nerves, all types of nerve fibers are able to regenerate in the mouse, although small size fibers (sudomotor and nociceptive) allow for a higher degree of functional recovery than large myelinated fibers (skeletomotor and sensory).

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    We observed that peripheral axotomy results in profound transcriptional reprogramming of DRG neurons, involving both induction of a common set of injury-response genes across neuronal subtypes and the coincident downregulation of genes that define transcriptional identity. This transcriptional reprogramming is reversible, as the transcriptional states of injured neuronal nuclei return to their naive states within weeks (Figures 5A, 5B, S3E, and S3F), coinciding with target reinnervation (Figure S5B) (Navarro et al., 1994; Vogelaar et al., 2004). Injury-induced transcriptional reprogramming leads to a new transcriptional state in which neuronal subtypes are difficult to distinguish by their gene expression profiles.

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