Motoneurons of the adult marmoset can grow axons and reform motor endplates through a peripheral nerve bridge joining the locally injured cervical spinal cord to the denervated biceps brachii muscle.

Reconnection of the injured spinal cord (SC) of the marmoset with the denervated biceps brachii muscle (BB) was obtained by using a peripheral nerve (PN) bridge. In 13 adult males, a 45 mm segment of the peroneal nerve was removed: one end was implanted unilaterally into the cervical SC of the same animal (autograft), determining a local injury, although the other end was either directly inserted into the BB (Group A) or, alternatively, sutured to its transected motor nerve, the musculocutaneous nerve (Group B). From 2-4 months post-surgery, eight out of the 10 surviving animals responded by a contraction of the BB to electrical stimulations of the PN bridge. All ten were then processed for a morphological study. As documented by retrograde axonal tracing studies using horse radish peroxidase or Fast Blue (FB), a mean number of 314 (Group A) or 45 (Group B) spinal neurons, mainly located close to the site of injury and grafting, re-expressed a capacity to grow and extend axons into the PN bridge. Most of these regenerated axons were able to grow up to the BB and form or reform functional motor endplates. Many of the spinal neurons that were retrogradely labeled with FB simultaneously displayed immunoreactivity for choline acetyl-transferase and consequently were assumed to be motoneurons. Reinnervation and regeneration of the BB were documented by methods revealing axon terminals, endplates and myofibrillary ATPase activity. Our results indicate that motoneurons of the focally injured SC of a small-sized primate can, following the example of the adult rat, re-establish a lost motor function by extending new axons all the way through a PN bridge connected to a denervated skeletal muscle. Copyright 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.