Rj. Podhajsky et Rr. Myers, THE VASCULAR-RESPONSE TO NERVE TRANSECTION - NEOVASCULARIZATION IN THE SILICONE NERVE REGENERATION CHAMBER, Brain research, 662(1-2), 1994, pp. 88-94
The rat sciatic nerve regeneration chamber was used to study the spati
al and temporal response of the endoneurial vasculature during regener
ation. Proximal and distal stumps of a transected rat sciatic nerve we
re placed in opposite ends of a silicone tube and allowed to regenerat
e for periods of 2, 3, 4 or 52 weeks after the surgery. Serial, transv
erse sections of nerve were studied at each time-point to quantitate t
he number of vessels, capillary density and the vessel luminal perimet
er per nerve area. The results indicate that the vascular growth relat
ive to the existing tissue in the chamber increases to a peak beyond n
ormal levels and later decreases to values associated with control tis
sue. While this growth occurred from both the proximal and distal stum
ps, it appeared predominately as a traveling wave in the proximal-dist
al direction preceding the major thrust of neuritic outgrowth from the
proximal stump. Morphologic measurements of angiogenesis were paralle
led in other animals by measurements of nerve blood flow using laser D
oppler flometry at corresponding time-points. These data differ somewh
at from previous reports of angiogenesis following nerve crush injury
and are useful in formulating a general mathematical model of regenera
tion in the peripheral nervous system.