INTRODUCTION Motor endplate reinnervation is critical for restoring motor function of the denervated muscle. We developed a novel surgical technique called nerve-muscle-endplate band grafting (NMEG) for muscle reinnervation. METHODS Experimentally denervated sternomastoid muscle in the rat was reinnervated by transferring a NMEG from the ipsilateral sternohyoid muscle to the native motor zone...

An analysis based on the Green’s function for the diffusion equation indicates that the BaBar drift chamber could be purged of air down to 1 ppm in 8 hours with a purge gas velocity in the chamber of 0.043 cm/s, corresponding to one volume change every 2 hours. Anecdotal evidence from CLEO and ALEPH supports this claim. • It is proposed that the gas be fed into the chamber through 64 holes of 1...

INTRODUCTION Motor endplates are composed of a motor neuron terminal and muscle fiber and are distributed in skeletal muscle, causing muscle contraction. However, traditional motor endplate staining methods are limited to the observation of partial skeletal muscle. The procedure was time-consuming due to strict incubation conditions, and usually provided unsatisfactory results. We explored a no...

Current surgical treatment of idiopathic scoliosis involves the use of various segmental instrumentation. Various pedicle screws have allowed for improved correction. Although monoaxial screws have improved rotational control compared with polyaxial screws, their use may increase screw-bone interface or vertebral endplate forces if not inserted in an exactly straight trajectory. Uniaxial screws...

Stress magnitude and variability as estimated from large scale finite element (FE) analyses have been associated with compressive strength of human vertebral cancellous cores but these relationships have not been explored for whole vertebral bodies. In this study, the objectives were to investigate the relationship of FE-calculated stress distribution parameters with experimentally determined s...

This study investigated whether immobilization-induced hyposensitivity to d-tubocurarine (dTC), up-regulation of acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) and changes in fiber size and motor endplate size persist indefinitely and whether they are causally related. Unilateral disuse of the tibialis muscle was produced in adult rats by pinning the knee and ankle joints at 90 degrees flexion. The contralate...

BACKGROUND Although chemokine stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) and its receptor CXCR4 induce degradation of articular cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA), the association between the SDF-1/CXCR4 pathway and degradation of the cartilaginous endplate and nucleus pulposus has not been thoroughly clarified. We investigated the expression of SDF-1 and CXCR4 in interve...

Rat motor nerve terminals and the endplates they interact with exhibit changes to varying patterns of use, as when exposed to increased activation in the form of endurance exercise training. The extent to which these changes affect neuromuscular transmission efficacy is uncertain. In this study, the effects of habitual exercise on the electrophysiological properties of neuromuscular transmissio...

BACKGROUND Small animal models that can mimic degenerative disc disease (DDD) are commonly used to examine DDD progression. However, assessments such as histological studies and macroscopic measurements do not allow for longitudinal studies because they can only be completed after the animal is sacrificed. Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) may provide a reliable, non-invasive in vivo meth...