Electrical Stimulation to Enhance Axon Regeneration After Peripheral Nerve Injuries in Animal Models and Humans.

ABSTRACT: Injured peripheral nerves regenerate their lost axons but functional recovery in humans is frequently disappointing. This is so particularly when injuries require regeneration over long distances and/or over long time periods. Fat replacement of chronically denervated muscles, a commonly accepted explanation, does not account for poor functional recovery. Rather, the basis for the poor nerve regeneration is the transient expression of growth-associated genes that accounts for declining regenerative capacity of neurons and the regenerative support of Schwann cells over time. Brief low-frequency electrical stimulation accelerates motor and sensory axon outgrowth across injury sites that, even after delayed surgical repair of injured nerves in animal models and patients, enhances nerve regene

SUBMITTER: Gordon T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4824030 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature