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The effect of age on peripheral motor nerve function after crush injury in the rat
B M Belin1, D J Ball, J C Langer
1Division of Pediatric Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110, USA.
Objective:
To determine the ontogeny of functional recovery after peripheral nerve crush injury.
Design:
Comparative study in rats of varying ages.
Material And Methods:
Sixty-second crush injury was performed on the left posterior tibial nerve. Control animals underwent either nerve transection or sham procedure. Nerve function was evaluated 2, 4, and 8 weeks following injury by walking track analysis. Print length ratio (PLR), (ratio of normal right-sided print length to experimental left-sided print length), was used to evaluate functional recovery.
Measurements And Main Results:
Two weeks after crush injury, adult rats experienced significantly greater functional impairment than both 4-day-old and 3-week-old animals (p < 0.05). Four weeks after injury, the difference in function between 4-day-old and adult rats and between 3-week-old and adult rats became insignificant. Complete recovery had been achieved by 8 weeks in all groups.
Conclusions:
These results demonstrate faster functional recovery after nerve injury in immature rats than in adults.