Partial Denervation (partial + denervation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Life Sciences


Selected Abstracts


Activity alters muscle reinnervation and terminal sprouting by reducing the number of schwann cell pathways that grow to link synaptic sites

DEVELOPMENTAL NEUROBIOLOGY, Issue 4 2003
Flora M. Love
Abstract In partially denervated rodent muscle, terminal Schwann cells (TSCs) located at denervated end plates grow processes, some of which contact neighboring innervated end plates. Those processes that contact neighboring synapses (termed "bridges") appear to initiate nerve terminal sprouting and to guide the growth of the sprouts so that they reach and reinnervate denervated end plates. Studies conducted prior to knowledge of this potential involvement of Schwann cells showed that direct muscle stimulation inhibits terminal sprouting following partial denervation (Brown and Holland, 1979). We have investigated the possibility this inhibition results from an alteration in the growth of TSC processes. We find that stimulation of partially denervated rat soleus muscle does not alter the length or number of TSC processes but does reduce the number of TSC bridges. Stimulation also reduces the number of TSC bridges that form between end plates during reinnervation of a completely denervated muscle. The nerve processes ("escaped fibers") that normally grow onto TSC processes during reinnervation are also reduced in length. Therefore, stimulation alters at least two responses to denervation in muscles: (1) the ability of TSC processes to form or maintain bridges with innervated synaptic sites, and (2) the growth of axons along processes extended by TSCs. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol 54: 566,576, 2003 [source]


Evaluation of simple and complex sensorimotor behaviours in rats with a partial lesion of the dopaminergic nigrostriatal system

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE, Issue 1 2000
Pascal Barnéoud
Abstract We have examined the behavioural consequences of a partial unilateral dopaminergic denervation of the rat striatum. This partial lesion was obtained by an intrastriatal 6-hydroxy-dopamine injection (6-OHDA, 20 or 10 ,g divided between two injection sites) and was compared with a unilateral complete lesion resulting from an injection of 6-OHDA (2 × 6 ,g) into the medial forebrain bundle. Quantification of striatal dopamine (DA) and its metabolites, and the immunohistochemical evaluation of the nigrostriatal DA system confirmed the complete and partial lesions. Animals with complete striatal denervation displayed both apomorphine- and amphetamine-induced rotations whereas the partial denervation elicited amphetamine-induced rotations only. However, the rates of amphetamine-induced rotation were not correlated with the size of the lesion. In contrast, the paw-reaching impairments were significantly correlated with the striatal dopaminergic depletion. When evaluated in the staircase test, animals with partial denervation were impaired exclusively for the paw contralateral to the side of the lesion. This motor deficit (50,75%) included all components of the skilled paw use (i.e. attempt, motor coordination and success) and was observed at least 12 weeks after the lesion. However, these animals were able to perform normal stepping adjustments with the impaired paw, indicating that the partial lesion induced a coordination deficit of the paw rather than a deficit of movement initiation. After a complete lesion, stepping adjustments of the contralateral paw were dramatically impaired (by 80%), an akinesia which almost certainly accounted for the great deficit in skilled paw use. The paw-reaching impairments resulting from the partial striatal denervation are proposed as a model of the early symptoms of Parkinson's disease and may be useful for the development of restorative therapies. [source]


Abstracts of the 8th Meeting of the Italian Peripheral Nerve Study Group: 83

JOURNAL OF THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, Issue 1 2003
G Lauria
We describe a 64-year-old patient complaining of progressive gait disturbance, referred to the compressive effect of multiple discal protrusions, for about 3 years. At the age of 62 he presented epileptic seizures during a febrile episode. Cerebral MRI showed bilateral frontobasal T2-weighted hyperintensity involving cortex and white matter. Partial seizures reappeared one year later and a MRI revealed a mild frontobasal atrophy. At the moment of our observation, neurological examination showed waddling gait with bilateral foot drop, muscular atrophy and weakness limited to the gluteal muscles and widespread deep tendon areflexia. Nerve conduction studies showed absent F-waves at both upper and lower limb examination, with normal distal sensorimotor nerve conduction. Needle EMG examination detected mild chronic partial denervation, predominant in proximal muscles of lower limbs. Somatosensory evoked potentials recorded from upper extremities showed bilateral increase in early latencies (N9). Overall, neurophysiological findings indicated a widespread radiculopathy. Serum exams revealed positive anti-nucleus (1:640, granular). CSF examination detected increased IgG level and several oligoclonal bands. Chest radiogram was normal. Soon after our first observation, the patient showed symptoms of respiratory insufficiency. A CT scans revealed a thoracic mass compatible with microcytoma, whereas anti-Hu (3 +) antibodies and increased NSE (neuronal specific enolase) titer were found. In the following two weeks, the patient showed a progressive worsening of the general clinical conditions and died. We interpreted this complex neurological picture, which included an atypical limbic encephalitis and a slowly progressive polyradiculopathy, as a paraneoplastic syndrome. The almost complete resolution of the encephalitic process and the subtle chronic involvement of the peripheral nervous system, characterized by a limited, though widespread, radicular impairment, are rather peculiar features. [source]


Guanosine-Induced Synaptogenesis in the Adult Brain In Vivo

THE ANATOMICAL RECORD : ADVANCES IN INTEGRATIVE ANATOMY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 12 2009
Inmaculada Gerrikagoitia
Abstract Astrocytes release factors like cholesterol, apoE, and pleiotropic molecules that influence synaptogenesis in the central nervous system. In vitro studies have shown that guanosine elicits the production and further release of these synaptogenic factors. To demonstrate that such astrocytic factors are synaptogenic in vivo, osmotic pumps were implanted in primary visual cortex (VC) of Sprague-Dawley rats to deliver guanosine. Simultaneous injection of dextran amine as an anterograde tracer at the same site where the osmotic pumps were implanted enabled the morphology of the fibers emerging from the VC to be visualized as well. The guanosine-treated efferent connections from these animals showed a significant increase in the number and size of synaptic boutons along the efferent fibers when compared with controls. A similar increase in the number and size of synaptic boutons was also detected when the cortico,cortical connection to the lateral secondary visual area was studied in more detail. The ensuing morphological changes to the synapses did not show a clear preference for any particular type or site of the axonal branches that integrates this cortical connection. Moreover, the distribution of boutons along the fibers was clearly stochastic according to their size. Thus, guanosine administration appears to open up the possibility of manipulating connections to compensate for total or partial denervation. Anat Rec, 292:1968,1975, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Sprouting capacity of lumbar motoneurons in normal and hemisected spinal cords of the rat

THE JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 15 2010
T. Gordon
Nerve sprouting to reinnervate partially denervated muscles is important in several disease and injury states. To examine the effectiveness of sprouting of active and inactive motor units (MUs) and the basis for a limit to sprouting, one of three rat lumbar spinal roots was cut under normal conditions and when the spinal cord was hemisected at T12. Muscle and MU isometric contractile forces were recorded and muscle fibres in glycogen-depleted single muscle units enumerated 23 to 380 days after surgery. Enlargement of intact MUs by sprouting was effective in compensating for up to 80% loss of innervation. For injuries that removed >70,80% of the intact MUs, muscle contractile force and weight dropped sharply. For partial denervation of <70%, all MUs increased contractile force by the same factor in both normally active muscles and muscles whose activity was reduced by T12 hemisection. Direct measurements of MU size by counting glycogen-depleted muscle fibres in physiologically and histochemically defined muscle units, provided direct evidence for a limit in MU size, whether or not the activity of the muscles was reduced by spinal cord hemisection. Analysis of spatial distribution of muscle fibres within the outer boundaries of the muscle unit demonstrated a progressive increase in fibres within the territory to the limit of sprouting when most of the muscle unit fibres were adjacent to each other. We conclude that the upper limit of MU enlargement may be explained by the reinnervation of denervated muscle fibres by axon sprouts within the spatial territory of the muscle unit, formerly distributed in a mosaic pattern. [source]