[Experimental implantation of peripheral nerves in cerebral hemispheres of rabbits]

The authors give a report on the results obtained in the implantation of autologous nerves in the cerebral hemispheres of rabbits. In a group of five rabbits they implanted a nerve immediately after its removal, in a second equally large group they implanted a nerve only after seven days of preliminary degeneration. After 12 to 14 weeks of the animals with 10 per cent neutral formalin was carried out and the preparations were impregnated according to the Nauta-Gygax method. In the histological sections they only succeeded in discovering individual fibres, which may be the axons of the cerebral cells growing through into the transplanted peripheral nerves. The authors did not see any differences between the immediately implanted nerves and nerves only implanted after a preliminary degeneration. The results obtained require a maximum of caution in the appraisal of the transplantation possibilities in the central nervous system.