Abstract
Moderate exercise in the form of treadmill training and
brief electrical nerve stimulation (ES) both enhance axon
regeneration after peripheral nerve injury. Androgens
were suspected to be involved in the enhancement of axon
regeneration due to treadmill training because of a sex difference
previously identified, in which different regimens of exercise lead
to dissimilar results of axon regeneration between male and female
mice (Wood et al.,
2012). We treated mice with the
androgen receptor blocker, flutamide, prior to either exercise or
ES, to evaluate the role of androgen receptor signaling in these
methods of enhancing axon regeneration. The common fibular (CF) and
tibial (TIB) nerves of thy-1-YFP-H mice, in which axons in
peripheral nerves are marked by yellow fluorescent protein (YFP),
were transected and repaired using CF and TIB nerve grafts
harvested from non-fluorescent donor mice. Silastic capsules filled
with flutamide were implanted subcutaneously to release the drug
continuously. Exercised mice were treadmill trained five days/week
for two weeks, starting on the third day post transection. For
ES, the sciatic nerve was stimulated continuously for
one hour prior to nerve transection. After two weeks, lengths of
YFP+ axon profiles were measured from harvested nerves. Both
exercise and ES enhanced axon regeneration, but this enhancement
was blocked completely by flutamide treatments. Signaling through
androgen receptors is necessary for the enhancing effects of
treadmill exercise or ES on axon regeneration in cut peripheral
nerves.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Materials and Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
About this Honors Thesis
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