[Motor reconnection between the damaged cervical cord and the denervated biceps muscle using an autologous peripheral nerve segment in the adult marmoset].

Our research group is studying, in the primate (marmoset), the conditions of an anatomical and functional reconstruction of the spinal cord and of its motor connections, following a focal spinal lesion. In this attempt to repair the damaged neuronal circuitry, we used long segments of autologous peripheral nerves joining the injured cervical spinal cord to an aneural region of the denervated biceps brachialis muscle (7 marmosets) or to the musculocutaneous nerve (6 marmosets). After retrograde tracing (HRP) and histochemical studies of the muscle, we found that a great number of neurons, located mostly in the ventral part of the grey matter extended axons into the peripheral nerve graft. Some of these labelled neurons were motoneurons, which could established functionnal neuromuscular junctions. The muscle regeneration was effective but slower than already known in rat studies.