Morphological And Functional Study Of The Rabbit Sciatic Nerve Following Electrical Injury

Electrical injury results in the pathophysiological changes of tissue by means of the thermal damage and eletroporation. The neurologic complications of electrical injury may be classified into cerebral, peripheral and sympathetic complaints. The peripheral manifestations include sensory impairments, movement disorders and so on. But it was not entirely clear about the morphological and functional pathological changes after PNI. To further investigate the pathological changes in the peripheral nerves, we injured the sciatic nerves in rabbits with alternating current and measured the electrophysiology of nerve trunks, the cellular cycle of Schwann cells and measured the ultrastructure of neurites. In addition, through local application of bFGF, we observed its promoting effects on regeneration of the peripheral nerves after electrical injury.At first, the manufacture of a steady animal model is the successful fundament for this experiment. In the basis of reviewing the published series, the 60Hz alternating currents between 0-220V were applied to injury the sciatic nerve of rabbits directly and the experimental methods were simplified. The current intensity, voltage amplitude and duration were chosen properly by the general observation, measurements of temperature and recording of the nerve conductive velocity after 1 wk. Then, the peripheral nerve injury model qualified to this experiment was made. The results showed that 30V current could not induce nerve injuries, 50V current could cause the low-grade damage, 75V current could cause the moderate-grade...