Figure 1.

Induction of sciatic nerve injury in right leg of the rats. After anesthesia (A), the common sciatic nerve of the right hind paw was exposed the middle of thigh by blunt dissection through the biceps femoris (B). For sciatic nerve crush, a hemostatic sterile clamp was used. The sciatic nerve was crushed for a total of 30 s. Then, the wound was closed with a 2.0 suture and rats were allowed to recover in the postoperative room. In sham-operated rats, the same surgical procedure was followed, the connective tissue was freed, and no ligatures were applied.