Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease involving multiple joints. The cervical spine is often affected, and cases involving atlantoaxial joint can lead to instability. Anterior atlantoaxial subluxation in RA patients can lead to posterior neck pain or occipital headache because of compression of the C2 ganglion or nerve. Here, we report the successful treatment of a RA pati...

The effect of systemic NGF treatment on loss and shrinkage of dorsal root ganglion cells was studied in adult male rats after permanent axotomy. Nineteen 16 to 18-wk-old rats had their right 5th lumbar spinal nerve ligated and cut approximately 7 mm peripheral to the ganglion. Two days before the operation, treatment with subcutaneous injections of human recombinant NGF (1.0-0.5 mg/kg/day) was ...

A clinical review and histopathological study of three cases of Anderson-Fabry disease is presented and pathological changes in the central and peripheral nervous systems are reported, in some sites for the first time. These are telangiectatic changes in vessels of the sympathetic ganglia in the vertebral trunk; storage of glycolipid in pigmented cells of the substantia nigra and in anterior ho...

S everal ways of promoting nerve regeneration have been discovered including the use of biochemical substances such as growth factors, hormones and physical factors such as electric currents, and magnetic fields. As first reported by Levi-Montalcini, NGF was identified by promoting growth of neurites from primary cultures of chick explants by using visually scored neurite growth. Recently, the ...

Chronic compression of the dorsal root ganglion (CCD) was produced in adult rats by implanting a stainless steel rod unilaterally into the intervertebral foramen, one rod at L(4) and another at L(5). Two additional groups of rats received either a sham surgery or an acute injury consisting of a transient compression of the ganglion. Withdrawal of the hindpaw was used as evidence of a nocifensiv...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE This study was carried out to determine the effects of reactive oxygen species in the balance between the pro-oxidant and antioxidant levels in experimental peripheral constriction injury induced by silver wire looping of sciatic nerve of rats. METHODS Rats were divided into experimental group 1 (silver wire ligated) and group 2 (control, sham operated). Functional and ...

An experimental model was established to investigate the possibility of repairing cervical nerve roots damaged above the dorsal root ganglion, as occurs in traction injuries of the brachial plexus. In four sheep the C6 root was divided and repaired within the dura using freeze-thawed muscle grafts. Recovery was assessed after eight months by electrophysiology and histology. Action potentials we...

Diabetic polyneuropathy is a major complication of diabetes mellitus, causing severe alterations of the neural circuits between spinal nerves and spinal cord. The analysis of 3D confocal images of dorsal root ganglia in diabetic mice, where different fluorescent markers are used to identify different types of nociceptors, can help understanding the unknown mechanisms of this pathology. Neverthe...

Electrical stimulation of the proximal stump of the transected sciatic nerve produces a frequency-dependent activation of glucose utilization, measured with the autoradiographic deoxy [14C]glucose method, in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord but produces no change in glucose utilization in the dorsal root ganglion cells. These results suggest that axon terminals and not the cell bodies are the...