Delay modulates the immune response to nerve repair.

Effective regeneration after peripheral nerve injury requires macrophage recruitment. We investigated the activation of remodeling pathways within the macrophage population when repair is delayed and identified alteration of key upstream regulators of the inflammatory response. We then targeted one of these regulators, using exogenous IL10 to manipulate the response to injury at the repair site.

Approach for semi-automated measurement of fiber diameter in murine and canine skeletal muscle.

Currently available software tools for automated segmentation and analysis of muscle cross-section images often perform poorly in cases of weak or non-uniform staining conditions. To address these issues, our group has developed the MyoSAT (Myofiber Segmentation and Analysis Tool) image-processing pipeline. MyoSAT combines several unconventional approaches including advanced background leveling, Perona-Malik anisotropic diffusion filtering, and Steger's line detection algorithm to aid in pre-processing and enhancement of the muscle image.

Revitalizing the common peroneal function index for assessing functional recovery following nerve injury.

Background And Aims: Peripheral nerve injury is common with poor functional recovery and consequent high personal and societal costs. Sciatic nerve transection and assessment of recovery using sciatic functional index (SFI) are widely used. SFI is biologically limited as axonal misdirection of axons supplying flexors and extensors in the hindlimb, after nerve injury can lead to synkinetic innervation and function which does not correspond to the degree of axonal regeneration.

Functional electrical stimulation following nerve injury in a large animal model.

Introduction: Controversy exists over the effects of functional electrical stimulation (FES) on reinnervation. We hypothesized that intramuscular FES would not delay reinnervation after recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLn) axonotmesis.

Methods: RLn cryo-injury and electrode implantation in ipsilateral posterior cricoarytenoid muscle (PCA) were performed in horses.

RetroDISCO: Clearing technique to improve quantification of retrograde labeled motor neurons of intact mouse spinal cords.

Background: Quantification of the number of axons reinnervating a target organ is often used to assess regeneration after peripheral nerve repair, but because of axonal branching, this method can overestimate the number of motor neurons regenerating across an injury. Current methods to count the number of regenerated motor neurons include retrograde labeling followed by cryosectioning and counting labeled motor neuron cell bodies, however, the process of sectioning introduces error from potential double counting of cells in adjacent sections.

New Method: We describe a method, retroDISCO, that optically clears whole mouse spinal cord without loss of fluorescent signal to allow imaging of retrograde labeled motor neurons using confocal microscopy.