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Updated: Feb 5, 2026

Reproducible Mouse Sciatic Nerve Crush and Subsequent Assessment of Regeneration by Whole Mount Muscle Analysis
Published on: February 22, 2012
The neural regeneration effect of chitin biological absorbable tubes bridging sciatic nerve defects with sural nerve
Zhiyong Wang1, Jing Fan1, Xiaomei Yang1
1Department of Anatomy and Histo-Embryology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University Beijing 100191, P. R. China.
Objective:
To investigate the feasibility and efficacy of sural nerve grafts for repairing sciatic nerve defects using a chitin biological absorbable tube bridge.
Methods:
A sciatic nerve defect model in the rat was produced, and the sural nerve, cut from the ipsilateral leg, was used as a graft to repair the defect using chitin biological absorbable tube bridges. Then the number and morphology of regenerating myelinated fibers, nerve function index, nerve conduction velocity, and motor end plate and triceps surae muscle morphology were evaluated.
Results:
The number and morphology of regenerated fibers, nerve function index, nerve conduction velocity, and motor end plate and triceps surae muscle morphology were improved in rats in which the nerve defect was bridged with chitin biological absorbable tubes compared with rats in which the defect was repaired without tubes.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that using a sural nerve graft to repair sciatic nerve defects with chitin biological absorbable tubes bridge promotes structural and functional recovery, and improves end plate and muscle fiber morphology as well.
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