Quantitative studies of the regeneration of rat myelinated nerve fibres: variations in the number and size of regenerating fibres after repeated localized freezings.

The number and size of myelinated nerve fibres were determined in the nerve to the medial head of the gastrocnemius muscles of rats whose left sciatic nerve was repeatedly frozen (one to five times at three weekly intervals). The contralateral nerve was used as a control. Results varied according to the number of freezings performed and, for a given number of freezings, according to the period of regeneration. When measurements were completed 1 month after the last of several localized freezings, the number of regenerating myelinated nerve fibres increased regularly up to the third freezing, reaching to about 220% of the control value, but no higher values were recorded after four or five freezings. The nerve fibre distribution was unimodal in all the nerves studied. The mean diameter of all myelinated fibres decreased with the number of freezings from 50% of the control value after the first to 36% after the fifth. When measurements were made 1, 3, 6, 12 and 18 months after the third and final freezing, the number of regenerating myelinated nerve fibres decreased by about 30% between the first and third month and then stabilized at 190% of the control value. Nerve fibre distribution became bimodal from the third month onwards, and the mean diameter of all myelinated fibres increased regularly. However, by the eighteenth month, the size of regenerated myelinated nerve fibres had only reached 70% of the normal contralateral value.