Functional aspects of the regeneration of unmyelinated axons in the rat saphenous nerve

Electrophysiological experiments have been carried out to investigate aspects of unmyelinated axon regeneration in a transected cutaneous nerve. Some comparisons with regeneration of myelinated axons in the same nerve have also been made.

By 3 months after injury approximately 80% of the unmyelinated axons that had survived in the proximal stump had regenerated into the distal stump. About the same proportion of myelinated axons had regrown into the distal stump by this time. With both groups of axons there was no marked increase in the amount of regeneration across the injury site with longer recovery times. Conduction velocities in the regenerated unmyelinated axons tended to be slower across the injury site than proximally; the proximal conduction velocities did not differ from those in control nerves. The unmyelinated axons seemed to take longer to resupply the skin than did the myelinated ones, but in both cases the extent of skin innervation had reached about 60% of control values by 6 months after the injury.