Role of lumbricus extract in the nerve amplification effect during peripheral nerve regeneration.

Among the methods of the peripheral nerve repair, artificial conduit bridging surgery is superior to epineurium and perineurium neurorrhaphy because of supplying enough space for nerve regeneration. Artificial conduit provides important microenvironment for peripheral nerve regeneration, especially for nerve amplification effect. Amplification phenomenon has been demonstrated in many studies using artificial conduit. When a finer nerve is used as a donor to connect to a distal nerve after injury, the donor nerve regenerates more lateral buds than its own fibers, which grow into distal endoneurial tubes and finally dominate the target organs. In this study, we used artificial conduit to investigate the amplification phenomenon in rats treated with Lumbricus extract as adjuvant treatment. The rats were divided into three groups at random. In the surgical groups, the proximal common peroneal nerve was used as a donor nerve to connect the distal tibial nerve. Rats in the normal group were not performed surgery. Postoperatively, the treatment group was administered Lumbricus extract as adjuvant treatment, while the model group and normal group were not given treatment. The results showed that the nerve conduction velocity, the morphometric measurements, the histological analysis and the amplification ratio in the treatment group were better than in the model group.