Short-Term Collagen Nerve Wrapping Facilitates Motor and Sensory Recovery from Nerve Degeneration in a Sciatic Nerve Injury Rat Model

Motoki Sonohata; Atsushi Doi; Kazuyoshi Uchihashi; Akira Hashimoto; Sakumo Kii; Takao Inoue; Masaaki Mawatari

doi:10.2147/JPR.S401126

Short-Term Collagen Nerve Wrapping Facilitates Motor and Sensory Recovery from Nerve Degeneration in a Sciatic Nerve Injury Rat Model

J Pain Res. 2023 May 20:16:1683-1695. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S401126. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Motoki Sonohata^#^{1

2}, Atsushi Doi^#³, Kazuyoshi Uchihashi⁴, Akira Hashimoto², Sakumo Kii¹, Takao Inoue⁵, Masaaki Mawatari¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Saga University, Saga, Japan.
² Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Saga Central Hospital, Saga, Japan.
³ Department of Rehabilitation, Kumamoto Health Science University, Kumamoto, Japan.
⁴ Department of Surgical Pathology, National Hospital Organization Saga Hospital, Saga, Japan.
⁵ Organization of Research Initiatives, Yamaguchi University, Yamaguchi, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Purpose: This study used a sciatic nerve injury rat model to investigate the short-term effects of a polyglycolic acid (PGA)-collagen tube for nerve injury in continuity.

Materials and methods: Sixteen female Wistar rats (6-8 weeks) were used, and the left sciatic nerve was crushed with a Sugita aneurysm clip. Sciatic nerve model rats were randomly categorized into two groups (n = 8; control group, n = 8; nerve wrapping group). Then, we measured four sensory thresholds, magnetically stimulated the lumbar region to induce motor-evoked potentials (MEPs), and evaluated the sciatic nerve histopathologically.

Results: In the sensory thresholds, there were significant differences for the main effect in 250 and 2000 Hz stimulation (p = 0.048 and 0.006, respectively). Further, a significant difference was observed with 2000 Hz stimulation at 1 week (p = 0.003). In the heat stimulation, there were significant differences for the main effect in both weeks and groups (p = 0.0002 and 0.0185, respectively). The post-hoc test showed a significant difference between groups only in 2W (p = 0.0283). Three weeks after the surgery, both 2nd and 3rd MEPs waves-related latencies in the nerve wrapping group were significantly shorter than those in the control group (p = 0.0207 and 0.0271, respectively). Histological evaluation of the sciatic nerve revealed considerable differences in the number of axons between the two groups (p = 0.0352).

Conclusion: The short-term PGA-collagen tube nerve wrapping facilitated motor and sensory recovery from nerve degeneration in the sciatic nerve injury rat model.

Keywords: motor and sensory recovery; nerve wrapping; polyglycolic acid-collagen tube; sciatic nerve injury; sensory threshold.