Neuroreport
-
Brachial plexus injuries (BPI) are devastating events that frequently result in severe functional impairment of the upper extremity, and yet, present surgical reconstruction provides limited results. An animal model is an important tool to study peripheral nerve repair and regeneration. Here, a passive traction apparatus that allowed a multidirectional force exerted on a fixed forelimb was designed to produce a BPI rat model in a noninvasive manner. ⋯ In addition, nerve roots avulsion injury led to severe retrograde degeneration of motoneurons in the C5-C7 spinal cord segments. Nissl staining results showed that motoneurons decreased significantly in number and appeared to have irregular morphologies. These results indicated that a novel noninvasive rat model for BPI that simulates the mechanism of a human lesion could be produced using our passive traction apparatus, and it is expected to produce reliable preclinical evidence in the assessment of new therapeutic strategies for this lesion.