Effect Of Exercise Training On Functional Recovery After Crush Injury Of The Sciatic Nerve In The Rats

This study was done to investigate the effect of exercise training on functional recovery after crush injury of the sciatic nerve in the rats. After the crush injury to the unilateral sciatic nerve of the 60 male Sprague-Dawley rats, the effect of exercise training on the functional recovery was evaluated after forced exercise on the treadmill. Among the 60rats, the treadmill exercise group was divided into 2 subgroup(20 in each group) according to the amount of work load . Exercise training was given for 25 minutes daily for 3 to 5 weeks. Functional recovery was evaluated by the maximal angle on the inclined board that the rat could maintain its initial position, sciatic function index(SFI) calculated from the measurements of the foot prints, the latencies and amplitude of the compound muscle action potentials(CMAP) recorded at gastrocnemius (GCM) after sciatic stimulation . The results as following , 1. After treadmill exercise there was no significant difference in the motor behavior as measured by maximal angle on the inclined board between the 2 subgroup divided according to the workload (p>0.05) . 2. After treadmill exercise there was significant difference in the motor behavior as measured by sciatic function index between the 2 subgroup(p<0.05). 3. After 3 weeks of daily treadmill exercise from the 2 weeks after the injury, the latency and amplitude of the CMAP at GCM showed better recovery in one subgroup after the exercise with higher workload that of another subgroup with lower workload. With the results above it might be concluded that the exercise training in the rats after the sciatic nerve injury helps to improve motor behavior of the rats and the effect was better when the exercise was done with more workload.