Abstract

Acidic fibroblast growth factor(aFGF) has been shown to increase regeneration across a gap between the proximal and distal stumps of a transected nerve. In the present study, we examined sensory axon regeneration using an electrophysiological technique in order to investigate the effects of aFGF on regeneration of peripheral nerve axons after injury. Under pentobarbital anesthesia, male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to one of three different types of injury(crush, ligation, and sham injury models). The rats received i.v. injections of aFGF for ten days from the day of surgery. Twenty five days after injury, the rats were anaesthetized with urethane and the somatosensory evoked potentials(SSEPs) were recorded following sciatic nerve stimulation. aFGF significantly shortened the latencies of the SSEPs in crush injury model compared to the vehicle treated rats. In the case of ligation injury model, aFGF tended to shorten the latencies but the differences between aFGF and vehicle treated rats were not statistically significant. These results suggest that aFGF facilitates functional recovery after sciatic nerve injury.