New muscle growth in denervated extraocular muscle

Current therapies for paralytic ocular motility disorders often provide less than satisfactory results. Promising new techniques of nerve grafting and muscle transplantation used to treat muscle paralysis elsewhere in the body may have application to the ocular motor system. In studying a procedure designed to reinnervate paretic extraocular muscle (e.o.m.), we produced not only the expected nerve growth but also abundant new muscle growth. A considerable amount of this muscle growth occurred within the axon depleted nerve fascicles of the paretic muscle, suggesting that this structure was a particularly good matrix for muscle fiber growth. These observations suggest that new, entire neuromuscular units may be induced to grow in the plane of a paretic muscle if appropriate surface characteristics can be established.