Publications by authors named "Lydia Grossmann"

Lidocaine applied systemically or locally attenuates neuropathic pain in patients. Here we tested the hypothesis that ectopic activity in injured afferent A- or C-fibers is suppressed by lidocaine. In rats the sural nerve (skin nerve) or lateral gastrocnemius-soleus nerve (muscle nerve) was crushed.

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The functional properties of cutaneous afferent fibers were investigated 1-15 mo after nerve lesions, which allowed regeneration into denervated skin. After crushing or transection and resuturing the rat sural nerve, ongoing activity and responses to cold, heat, and mechanical stimuli presented to the denervated skin or to the nerve distal to the lesion were examined in 273 A-fibers and 211 C-fibers. Reinnervation of skin by A-fibers was largely complete by 1-4 mo after crushing but incomplete after transection and resuturing.

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Afferent A- and C-fibers regenerating into a nerve following peripheral nerve injury are exposed to inflammatory mediators released by Schwann cells, resident and invading macrophages, and other inflammatory cells. Here we tested the hypothesis that ongoing and evoked activity in these afferent fibers are enhanced by a mixture of inflammatory mediators [inflammatory soup (IS)] applied to the injured nerve. Using in vivo electrophysiology, regenerating afferent nerve fibers were studied 7-14 days after sural nerve crush lesion.

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Crush lesion of a skin nerve is followed by sprouting of myelinated (A) and unmyelinated (C) afferent fibers into the distal nerve stump. Here, we investigate quantitatively both ongoing activity and activity evoked by mechanical or thermal stimulation of the nerve in 43 A- and 135 C-fibers after crush lesion of the sural nerve using neurophysiological recordings in anesthetized rats. The discharge patterns in the injured afferent nerve fibers and in intact (control) afferent nerve fibers were compared.

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Cutaneous C-fiber afferents show two distinct types of cold sensitivity corresponding to non-noxious and noxious cold sensations. Here, responses to cold stimulation of afferent fibers regenerating in the rat sural nerve were studied in vivo 7-14 days after nerve crush and compared with responses to mechanical and heat stimulation. The physiological stimuli were applied to the sural nerve at or distal to the lesion site.

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