C. Beaulieu et al., CHANGES IN WATER DIFFUSION DUE TO WALLERIAN DEGENERATION IN PERIPHERAL-NERVE, Magnetic resonance in medicine, 36(4), 1996, pp. 627-631
The authors report NMR measurements of the changes in water diffusion
brought about by in vivo Wallerian degeneration due to either crush- o
r tie-injuries in the sciatic nerve of the frog, Using a pulsed-gradie
nt spin-echo sequence with a diffusion measurement time of 28 ms, the
degree of diffusion coefficient anisotropy {D(longitudinal)/D(transver
se)} 4 weeks after injury in both crush- and tie-injured nerves (2.3 /- 0.4 and 1.7 +/- 0.1, respectively) is significantly less than in no
rmal frog sciatic nerve (3.9 +/- 0.4), The decrease of anisotropy in t
he degenerated nerves is due to both a decrease in longitudinal diffus
ion and an increase in transverse diffusion, The changes in diffusion
coefficients are compared with the degree of axonal and myelin breakdo
wn observed in light and electron micrographs of the nerves.