Motor cortex stimulation for Parkinson's disease: a modelling study.

Chronic motor cortex stimulation (MCS) is currently being investigated as a treatment method for Parkinson's disease (PD). Unfortunately, the underlying mechanisms of this treatment are unclear and there are many uncertainties regarding the most effective stimulation parameters and electrode configuration. In this paper, we present a MCS model with a 3D representation of several axonal populations.

Type grouping in rat skeletal muscle after crush injury.

Object: Accuracy of reinnervation is an important factor that determines outcome after nerve injury and repair. Type grouping--the clustering of muscle fibers of the same type after reinnervation--can be used to investigate the accuracy of reinnervation. In this study, the degree of type grouping after crush injury in rats was compared with the clustering of muscle fibers after autografting or single-lumen nerve grafting.

Antigenic compartmentation of the cerebellar cortex in the chicken (Gallus domesticus).

The chick is a well-understood developmental model of cerebellar pattern formation,but we know much less about the patterning of the adult chicken cerebellum. Therefore an expression study of two Purkinje cell stripe antigens-zebrin II/aldolase C and phospholipase Cbeta4 (PLCbeta4)-has been carried out in the adult chicken (Gallus domesticus). The mammalian cerebellar cortex is built around transverse expression domains ("transverse zones"), each of which is further subdivided into parasagittally oriented stripes.

Automated characterization of nerve fibers labeled fluorescently: determination of size, class and spatial distribution.

Morphological classification of nerve fibers could help interpret the assessment of neural regeneration and the understanding of selectivity of nerve stimulation. Specific populations of myelinated nerve fibers can be investigated by retrograde tracing from a muscle followed by microscopic measurements of the labeled fibers at different anatomical levels. Gastrocnemius muscles of adult rats were injected with the retrograde tracer Fluoro-Gold.

Effect of nerve graft porosity on the refractory period of regenerating nerve fibers.

Object: In the present study the authors consider the influence of the porosity of synthetic nerve grafts on peripheral nerve regeneration.

Methods: Microporous (1-13 microm) and nonporous nerve grafts made of a copolymer of trimethylene carbonate and epsilon-caprolactone were tested in an animal model. Twelve weeks after surgery, nerve and muscle morphological and electrophysiological results of regenerated nerves that had grown through the synthetic nerve grafts were compared with autografted and untreated (control) sciatic nerves.