Effect of acute and chronic misonidazole administration on peripheral-nerve electrophysiology in mice.

I.p. administration at several dose levels over periods of up to 12 weeks, or continuous i.v. infusion of high doses of misonidazole (MISO) for 15 h, produced no significant change in peripheral nerve conduction velocity (NCV) and did not prevent the normal increase in NCV as the animals matured from 12 to 24 weeks of age. Peripheral NCV (sural nerve) was reduced in both MISO-treated and control mice with hind-limb tumour implants, presumably owing to physical pressure due to tumour growth. In addition, neither the medial nerves nor the tibial nerve in the normal limbs of the tumour-implanted, drug-treated animals showed any change. Consequently our earlier and present studies do not confirm the recent reports of changes in NCV following either acute or chronic MISO administration to mice.