Figure 6.
Functional, morphological, and morphometrical analyses of long-term regenerated nerves after hollow tube or muscle-in-tube (MIT) graft primary repair. (a) Histograms showing the result of the grasping test, performed 12 weeks after nerve repair. (b-f) Histograms of morphometrical analysis of the regenerated myelinated fibers. Analyses were performed 3 mm distal to the graft: (b) cross-sectional area of the whole nerve section, (c) myelinated fiber density, (d) total number of myelinated fibers, (e) size parameters (axon and fiber diameter, myelin thickness), and (f) g-ratio. Values in the graphics are expressed as mean + SEM. (g) Representative electron microscopy images of the regenerated distal part of the two experimental groups. Bar: 2 μm. (h) Frequency distribution histograms of myelinated fiber diameters. The two lines are the fitting lines of the distribution. (i) Scatter plots showing g-ratio of individual myelinated axons as a function of axon diameter. Regression lines, their equations, and R2 are also shown. Both (h) and (i) data were obtained by pooling all the values from all animals for each experimental group; hollow tube: n=830; muscle-in-tube graft: n=777.