Chemotactic arrangement of axons inside and distal to a venous graft

Experiments in rats, introducing the proximal and distal stumps of tibial and sural nerves into a vein graft, showed by acetylcholinesterase and toluidine blue staining that sensory and motor fibers mix inside the vein graft, but that nevertheless they are able to select their distal targets correctly. The authors' hypothesis is that surface membrane antigens of Schwann cells might be responsible for this chemotactic phenomenon.