Projects / Programmes
Collateral sprouting of sensory axons into end-to-side nerve anastomosis
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 3.03.00 |
Medical sciences |
Neurobiology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| B640 |
Biomedical sciences |
Neurology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology |
nerve injury, axon growth, collateral sprouting, neurotrophic factors, end-to-side anastomosis
Researchers (3)
| no. |
Code |
Name and surname |
Research area |
Role |
Period |
No. of publicationsNo. of publications |
| 1. |
15151 |
PhD Fajko Bajrović |
Neurobiology |
Head |
2002 - 2004 |
336 |
| 2. |
04412 |
PhD Janez Sketelj |
Neurobiology |
Researcher |
2002 - 2004 |
318 |
| 3. |
08289 |
PhD Marko Živin |
Neurobiology |
Researcher |
2002 - 2004 |
233 |
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Collateral sprouting of axons is a branching outgrowth of new axon terminals from uninjured axons. It usually leads to an expanded innervation area of the uninjured nerve into the adjacent denervated tissue.
If the distal stump of a transected peripheral nerve is sutured end-to-side to an intact adjacent nerve, motor and sensory axons of the intact (donor) nerve are able to sprout their collaterals through the anastomosed peripheral nerve stump and reinnervate previously denervated target tissue. Therefore, as an alternative to the standard anastomosis in the peripheral nerve repair (i.e., end-to-end), the end-to-side nerve anastomosis may be used on occasions when, after injury, the proximal nerve stump is not available. However, the induction mechanism of axonal sprouting into the end-to-side nerve anastomosis is not known yet. Also, possible untoward effects of collateral sprouting on the donor nerve must be examined before this procedure is more widely applied in therapy of human nerve injuries.
After peripheral nerve injury, collateral sprouting of sensory axons from the adjacent non-injured nerves into the denervated skin critically depends on the availability of the NGF. Induction mechanisms probably reside in degenerated neural pathways and denervated target tissue which are generally accepted as the origins of the NGF required for sprouting. We propose that the signaling between the injured and intact neurons in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) is also an important induction mechanism for collateral sprouting. The relative importance of these three mechanisms will be examined in this study as well as the importance of choosing the right peripheral nerve segment for optimal sprouting. In addition, the possible untoward effects on the donor nerve axons of collateral sprouting of axons into the end-to-side anastomosed nerve segment will be examined from the standpoint of axon morphology, electrophysiological properties and nociceptive function.
