Phrenic nerve diabetic neuropathy in rats: unmyelinated fibers morphometry.

We have demonstrated that phrenic nerves' large myelinated fibers in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats show axonal atrophy, which is reversed by insulin treatment. However, studies on structural abnormalities of the small myelinated and the unmyelinated fibers in the STZ-model of neuropathy are limited. Also, structural changes in the endoneural vasculature are not clearly described in this model and require detailed study.

Ultrastructural morphology and morphometry of phrenic nerve in rats.

Despite numerous literature reports on the morphometry of the myelinated fibers of phrenic nerves in rats, a systematic study of the longitudinal and lateral symmetry of the unmyelinated fibers morphometry is not available. In this study, we have undertaken ultrastructural and morphometric studies of the phrenic nerve in adult rats, assessing two different levels (proximal and distal) from both right and left sides. Phrenic nerves of adult male Wistar rats were prepared for epoxy resin embedding and transmission electron microscopy.

Peripheral nerve morphometry: Comparison between manual and semi-automated methods in the analysis of a small nerve.

Manual nerve morphometry has been usually described as tedious, time consuming, difficult to perform correctly and subject to many sources of errors. The above considerations might suggest that fully automated image analysis systems could be ideally programmed to analyze myelinated fibers. However, operator intervention is necessary to manually eliminate dark tissue elements such as pericytes and Schwann cell nuclei.