Tibial nerve transection - a standardized model for denervation-induced skeletal muscle atrophy in mice

The tibial nerve transection model is a well-tolerated, validated, and reproducible model of denervation-induced skeletal muscle atrophy in rodents. Although originally developed and used extensively in the rat due to its larger size, the tibial nerve in mice is big enough that it can be easily manipulated with either crush or transection, leaving the peroneal and sural nerve branches of the sciatic nerve intact and thereby preserving their target muscles. Thus, this model offers the advantages of inducing less morbidity and impediment of ambulation than the sciatic nerve transection model and also allows investigators to study the physiologic, cellular and molecular biologic mechanisms regulating the process of muscle atrophy in genetically engineered mice. The tibial nerve supplies the gastrocnemius, soleus and plantaris muscles, so its transection permits the study of denervated skeletal muscle composed of fast twitch type II fibers and/or slow twitch type I fibers. Here we demonstrate the tibial nerve transection model in the C57Black6 mouse. We assess the atrophy of the gastrocnemius muscle, as a representative muscle, at 1, 2, and 4 weeks post-denervation by measuring muscle weights and fiber type specific cross-sectional area on paraffin-embedded histologic sections immunostained for fast twitch myosin.