Fasciculation of the motor axons in the human musculocutaneous nerve
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 1996 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Scripta medica |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Other medical specializations |
| Keywords | motor axons; nerve fascicuization |
| Description | An improvement of efficiency of new methods applied in reconstructive operations of the brachial plexus requires knowledge of motor and somatosensory axon fasciculation in the proximal parts of peripheral nerves protruding from the brachial plexus. In the present paper we have described a fasciculation of the motor axons in the human musculocutaneous nerve. The human musculocutaneous nerves of both sides were removed from 2 cadavers 10 hours post mortem. The nerves were divided into five 1 cm long segments in the proximal-to distal direction (segments A-E) after fixation in Zamboni's fixative solution. The motor axon detection was based on their high acetylcholinesterase activity content determined by histochemical method. The motor axon distribution was photographed in a light microscope and evalualed by means of an image analysis system equipped with DIPS 4.0 software. The human musculocutaneous nerve is a polyfascicular nerve with a monofascicular segment located about 2 to 3 cm from its beginning at the lateral brachial fasciculus. The motor axons were dispersed regularly in all fascicles of the proximal segments (A-C), i.e., to the distance of 3 cm. The monofascicular segment containing dispersed molor nerve fibres is a very suitable point for connections related with nerve grafts during microsurgical reconstruction of the brachial plexus. The fascicles with abundant motor axons were observed in more distal segments (D, E) located more laterally, but medial fascicles always contained a small portion of motor axons. Our present findings suggest that histochemical detection of acelylcholinestrase activity in combination with the image analysis system is suitable method for the study of the motor axon fasciculation in human nerves. |
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