This study purposed to examine the effect of low power laser on pain response and axonal regeneration. In order to prepare peripheral nerve injury models, we crushed the sciatic nerve of Sprague-Dawley rats and treated them with low power laser for 21 days. The rats were divided into 4 groups: normal group(n=10); control group(n=10) without any treatment after the induction of sciatic nerve crush injury; experimental group I(n=10) treated with low power laser(0.21mJ/㎟) after the induction of sciatic nerve crush injury; and experimental group II(n=10) treated with low power laser(5.25mJ/㎟) after the induction of sciatic nerve crush injury. We measured spontaneous pain behavior(paw withdrawal latency test) and mechanical allodynia(von Frey filament test) for evaluating pain behavioral response, and measured the sciatic function index for evaluating the functional recovery of peripheral nerve before the induction of sciatic nerve crush injury and on day 1, 7, 14 and 21 after the induction. After the experiment was completed, changes in the H & E stain and toluidine blue stain were examined histopathologically, and changes in MAG(myelin associated glycoprotein) and c-fos were examined immunohistologically. According to the results of this study, when low power laser was applied to rat models with sciatic nerve crush injury for 21 days and the results were examined through pain behavior evaluation and neurobehavioral, histopathological and immunohistological analyses, low power laser was found to affect pain response and axonal regeneration in both experimental group I and experimental group II. Moreover, the effect on pain response and axonal regeneration was more positive in experimental group I to which output 0.21mJ/㎟ was applied than in experimental group II to which 5.25mJ/㎟ was applied.

Peripheral nerve injuries are very common in clinics and often result in severe functional deficits. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of treadmill running and electro-acupuncture on nerve regeneration and functional recovery of muscle activity following sciatic nerve crush injury in a rat model. A comparative study was conducted over 30 days on 60 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats grouped into sham control (C), electro-acupuncture (EA), treadmill (T), and treadmill plus electro-acupuncture (TEA). The left sciatic nerve was crushed for 30 sec using a hemostatic forceps and functional activity was evaluated with sciatic functional tests, nerve conduct velocity, muscle weight, and histology at 10, 20, and 30 days after injury. Muscle weight was significantly (P<0.05) increased between days 10 and 30 in the TEA group. In histology, the degree of damage was scored as C > TEA > T > EA, although necrosis and fibrosis of muscle was observed only in the TEA group. The EA and TEA groups showed rapid recovery with better myelinated axons on day 10. These results suggest that application of the TEA method with balanced exercise is a useful treatment option for peripheral nerve injury regeneration and muscle activity.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of mild-intensity exercise training on the denervated muscle atrophy in the sciatic nerve injured rat. Thirty-six male Sprague-Dawley rats (250~300 g) were randomly assigned into three groups; sham-denervated group (n=8), denervated group (n=8), and denervated-exercised group (n=20). Exercise consisted of treadmill running at 20 m/min speed with 0% grade for 30 min/day. The animals were decapitated at the second and sixth weeks postcrush. Soleus and medial gastrocnemius were immediately excised to be weighed. Type I and II fibers of the muscles were differentiated by m-ATPase (pH 9.4) stain, and fiber diameters were evaluated. The results were as follows: 1) The weight of the soleus and medial gastrocnemius muscles showed a tendency to increase in both the denervation-exercised groups compared to the denervated group. 2) In the 2-week denervation-exercised group, type II fiber diameter of soleus and type I fiber diameter of medial gastrocnemius were increased significantly compared to the denervated control group. 3) In the 6-week denervated-exercised group, type I fiber diameter of soleus and type II fiber diameter of medial gastrocnemius were hypertrophied significantly compared to sham-denervated group. The results of this study suggested that treadmill exercise partially prevented denervation atrophy in the soleus and medial gastrocnemius of the rat.