Peripheral neural interfaces: Skeletal muscles are hyper-reinnervated according to the axonal capacity of the surgically rewired nerves.

ABSTRACT: Advances in robotics have outpaced the capabilities of man-machine interfaces to decipher and transfer neural information to and from prosthetic devices. We emulated clinical scenarios where high- (facial) or low-neural capacity (ulnar) donor nerves were surgically rewired to the sternomastoid muscle, which is controlled by a very small number of motor axons. Using retrograde tracing and electrophysiological assessments, we observed a nearly 15-fold functional hyper-reinnervation of the muscle after high-capacity nerve transfer, demonstrating its capability of generating a multifold of neuromuscular junctions. Moreover, the surgically redirected axons influenced the muscle's physiological characteristics, by altering the expression of myosin heavy-chain types in alignment with the donor ne

SUBMITTER: Tereshenko V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10901366 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature