ACCELERATED RECOVERY FOLLOWING POLYAMINES AND AMINOGUANIDINE TREATMENT AFTER FACIAL-NERVE INJURY IN RATS

Accelerated axon regeneration is of paramount importance for improved functional recovery after motor nerve injuries. Following injury of th eir axon neurones undergo a series of changes, termed the axon reactio n, aimed at survival and regeneration of a new axon. We and others hav e found that early treatment with exogenous polyamines can enhance neu ronal survival and accelerate the rate of axon regeneration and functi onal recovery after sympathetic and motor (sciatic) nerve injuries. Re sults of the present study corroborate the previous findings and demon strate that after facial nerve injury in adult rats, polyamine treatme nt can accelerate the early phases of motor function recovery (vibriss ae movement). Treatment with aminoguanidine, an inhibitor of several o xidation reactions, produced a further improvement at the early phase of functional recovery. In the facial nucleus, the injury-induced tran sient reduction in the activity of the acetylcholine synthesizing enzy me choline acetyltransferase was not affected by the treatment. After nerve injury in 5-day-old male rats, polyamines and aminoguanidine tre atment exerted a minor neuroprotective effect (127.6% surviving neuron es compared to control). We conclude that polyamines and aminoguanidin e may have therapeutic potential in the acceleration of recovery after nerve injuries.