Misdirection and guidance of regenerating motor axons after experimental nerve injury and repair

Abstract

Misdirection of regenerating motor axons is one of the factors that can explain the disappointing recovery of function often observed after nerve injury and repair. In the first part of this thesis we quantified misdirection of motor axon regeneration after different types of nerve injury and repair in the rat sciatic nerve model, and we investigated the impact on functional recovery with ankle motion analysis. In the second part of this thesis we investigated two tools to guide regenerating motor axons in vivo: mechanical guidance with multichannel nerve tubes and biological guidance with gene therapy.