Figure 1.

Diagrammatic representations of the following. A: The sciatic nerve with two branches, the peroneal and tibial nerve branches. All motor axons normally project to the two different branches separately. B: Axonal sprouts from transected axons in the parent nerve can regrow into both distal branches, after transection and repair, axons in the two branches are retrogradely labeled with different colored neurotracers and the motor neurons are counted. B and C: The surgical procedures for nerve injury and repair, the proximal tibial nerve was ligated at the bifurcation site, then transected and sewn into the nearby muscle. The 6 mm biodegradable chitin conduits were placed at the repair site and a 2 mm gap was left between the proximal peroneal nerve and distal peroneal and tibial nerve segments. SN: sciatic nerve; P-PN: proximal peroneal nerve; D-PN: distal peroneal nerve; D-TN: distal tibial nerve.