Hypothesis of peripheral nerve regeneration induced by terminal effectors.

Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a common trauma in clinical practice. A number of techniques to deal with PNI repair have been designed in clinics. From these methods for nerve repairing shown to be effective in clinics, as well as related experiments, we formulated a hypothesis that PNI regeneration and functional repair are induced by terminal effectors. Regeneration of peripheral nerves is the process whereby the nerve fibers regenerated by the induction of terminal effectors establish connections with effector organs and induce the spinal cord and upper centers to recognize effector organs and to re-model them for effective innervations. The hypothesis has two major components: (1) after surgical repairing of the injured nerves, the functional localization of regenerated nerves is determined by the connected effector organs and (2) the upper nervous system enables structural remodeling and functional changes according to the functions of the effector organs.