Acrylamide-induced ascending degeneration of ligated peripheral nerve: effect of ligature location.

Acrylamide was administered to rats for 10 days (50 mg/kg/day) after ligation of either proximal (sciatic) or distal (posterior tibial) nerves. Morphologic evaluation of the nerves revealed severe degeneration 0.5 cm proximal to the ligature, with progressively less pronounced change at successively higher levels above the ligature, when compared with ligated non-treated controls. Although severe degeneration of the nerves was observed in both proximal- and distal-ligated groups of animals, the distal-ligated group showed slightly more change (at 0.5 cm above the ligature), suggesting a minor effect of distance of the site of nerve injury from the nerve cell body.