Adult motor axons preferentially reinnervate predegenerated muscle nerve

Preferential motor reinnervation (PMR) is the tendency for motor axons regenerating after repair of mixed nerve to reinnervate muscle nerve and/or muscle rather than cutaneous nerve or skin. PMR may occur in response to the peripheral nerve pathway alone in juvenile rats (Brushart, 1993; Redett et al., 2005), yet the ability to identify and respond to specific pathway markers is reportedly lost in adults (Uschold et al., 2007). The experiments reported here evaluate the relative roles of pathway and end organ in the genesis of PMR in adult rats. Fresh and 2-week predegenerated femoral nerve grafts were transferred in correct or reversed alignment to replace the femoral nerves of previously unoperated Lewis rats. After 8 weeks of regeneration the motoneurons projecting through the grafts to recipient femoral cutaneous and muscle branches and their adjacent end organs were identified by retrograde labeling. Motoneuron counts were subjected to Poisson regression analysis to determine the relative roles of pathway and end organ identity in generating PMR. Transfer of fresh grafts did not result in PMR, whereas substantial PMR was observed when predegenerated grafts were used. Similarly, the pathway through which motoneurons reached the muscle had a significant impact on PMR when grafts were predegenerated, but not when they were fresh. Comparison of the relative roles of pathway and end organ in generating PMR revealed that neither could be shown to be more important than the other. These experiments demonstrate unequivocally that adult muscle nerve and cutaneous nerve differ in qualities that can be detected by regenerating adult motoneurons and that can modify their subsequent behavior. They also reveal that two weeks of Wallerian degeneration modify the environment in the graft from one that provides no modality-specific cues for motor neurons to one that actively promotes PMR.