Organ failure secondary to fibrosis is the main cause of morbidity and death in patients with systemic sclerosis. Gastrointestinal tract dysmotility is a major visceral manifestation, clinically ranging from an asymptomatic form to severe paresis. Although the oesophagus is the most frequently affected part of the gastrointestinal tract, all other segments can be involved. The present study was...

Although there is general agreement that hemichordates are more closely related to echinoderms and chordates than to any other groups of animals, their nervous systems appear to be no more highly organized than those of the coelenterates. Nerve fibres in enteropneust hemichordates form an intra-epithelial net, spreading extensively over the surface of the body and along the anterior part of the...

The present study investigated the distribution of nerves in the oviduct of the sexually immature ostrich. The presence of protein gene product 9.5, neurofilament protein and neuron specific enolase nerve fibres were demonstrated in the infundibulum, magnum, isthmus, shell gland and vagina. Nerve fibres containing protein gene product 9.5, neuron specific enolase and neurofilament protein were ...

The responses of A and C fibres to electrical intradermal stimulation were recorded with microelectrodes inserted percutaneously into intact human skin nerves. Unitary discharges deriving from A fibres were often encountered and sometimes even single C unit deflections were identified. When several C fibres responded to the stimulation, a compact time presentation of the filtered and dot-conver...

Responses to mechanical and electrical stimuli have been studied in vastus medialis in four young adults. Percussion causes an immediate, brief contraction in those muscle fibres passing beneath the site of the blow. This is accompanied by EMG activity which is propagated along the muscle fibres at a normal velocity of around 4 m/sec. The EMG activity lasts much longer than that produced by a s...

Distinct subsets of sensory nerve fibres are involved in mediating mechanical and thermal pain hypersensitivity. They may also differentially respond to analgesics. Heat-sensitive C-fibres, for example, are thought to respond to μ-opioid receptor (MOR) activation while mechanoreceptive fibres are supposedly sensitive to δ-opioid receptor (DOR) or GABAB receptor (GABABR) activation. The suggeste...

Changes with age in internodal length in the sural nerve in man have been discussed by Lascelles and Thomas (1966). They reported their findings in the sural nerve obtained at necropsy in 14 subjects of ages ranging from 18 to 80 years. In the 10 subjects under the age of 65 years the correlation between internodal length and the maximum diameter of single nerve fibres was found to be close, es...

Electrophysiological investigations in mice, particularly with altered myelination, require reference data of the nerve conduction velocity (CV). CVs of different fibre groups were determined in the hindlimb of anaesthetized adult mice. Differentiation between afferent and efferent fibres was performed by recording at dorsal roots and stimulating at ventral roots, respectively. Correspondingly,...

Studies on nerve fibres within the phrenic nerve and in the diaphragmatic plexus were carried out in one species, the gerbil, a small desert rodent. The resistance of this small mammal to surgical insult enabled experimental intrathoracic transection of the phrenic nerve to be carried out so that the results in 10 animals could be observed within the diaphragmatic plexus, the phrenic nerve, and...

Diabetes mellitus is reported to impair peripheral nerve regeneration, but the extent, timing and selectivity of the deficit is unclear. We studied regeneration of motor and sensory fibres in mice with experimental diabetes induced using streptozotocin (STZ). The mouse model featured several advantages over its counterpart in rats given STZ, while exhibiting the expected slowing of motor conduc...