Development of a novel experimental rat model for brachial plexus avulsion injury

Abstract

Brachial plexus injuries (BPI) are devastating events that frequently result in severe functional impairment of the upper extremity, and yet, present surgical reconstruction provides limited results. An animal model is an important tool to study peripheral nerve repair and regeneration. Here, a passive traction apparatus that allowed a multidirectional force exerted on a fixed forelimb was designed to produce a BPI rat model in a noninvasive manner. Behavioral and histological analyses were carried out to assess the suitability of the model. Using the apparatus, a reproducible upper BPI model was established with the forelimb abducted 30° and a test weight of 2 kg. Avulsion of the nerve roots resulted in almost a total loss of forelimb function and the average Terzis score was decreased significantly compared with the sham group. No obvious recovery of shoulder and elbow movements was noted during the test period. In addition, nerve roots avulsion injury led to severe retrograde degeneration of motoneurons in the C5-C7 spinal cord segments. Nissl staining results showed that motoneurons decreased significantly in number and appeared to have irregular morphologies. These results indicated that a novel noninvasive rat model for BPI that simulates the mechanism of a human lesion could be produced using our passive traction apparatus, and it is expected to produce reliable preclinical evidence in the assessment of new therapeutic strategies for this lesion.

Administration of Curcumin Alleviates Neuropathic Pain in a Rat Model of Brachial Plexus Avulsion

“…Even opioids that are normally used as analgesics are commonly considered to have no effect on neuropathic pain [22]. Standard methods applied to treat neuropathic pain are normally used in managing BPA-induced pain, as evidencebased treatment methods specific to BPA are scarce [23]. Therefore, it is crucial to identify novel drug molecules for treating BPA-induced pain.…”

Brachial Plexus Anatomy of Miniature Swine Compared to Human

“…Sensory and motor de cits are accompanied by neuropathic pain in up to 95% of BPIs and can be extremely debilitating [6,7]. Secondary signaling cascades, including in ammation, oxidative stress, blood-spinal cord barrier destruction, and scar formation, further exacerbate the injury and negatively impact recovery [8][9][10][11].…”

The rabbit brachial plexus as a model for nerve injury and repair Part 1: Anatomic study of the biceps and triceps innervation

“…Given the complexity of options available for reconstruction and the variability seen in outcomes, there is a need for animal models of brachial plexus injury to help develop and evaluate new surgical treatments. Experimental models of brachial plexus injury have been largely limited to the rat and mouse (Ibrahim, Raisman, & Li, 2009;Kim, Galatz, Patel, Das, & Thomopoulos, 2009;Kostopoulos, Konofaos, Frazer, & Terzis, 2010;Liu et al, 2015;Riva et al, 2012;Wang, Spinner, & Windebank, 2009;Yang et al, 2015;Yang, Yang, Yu, & Gu, 2014). The outcomes of reconstruction in rodents are universally good secondary to the exceptional regenerative capacity of rodents, and relatively short gap that can be created (Wang et al, 2009).…”