Effect of vitamin E-deficiency on regeneration of the sciatic nerve.

The regeneration of the sciatic nerve fibres was studied in both normal and vitamin E-deficient rats at 30 and 60 days after crush. The vitamin E is involved in one of the most important mechanisms of protection against peroxidation of plasma membrane lipids; the plasma membrane plays certainly a role in nerve regeneration. Both the diameter and the total number of myelinated nerve fibres was calculated at different times. The number of myelinated fibres in the undenervated deficient animals was lower than that found in the undenervated normals animals. Following the nerve crush, in normal animals after two months the number of myelinated fibres exceeded the number found in undenervated normal animals, whereas in the deficient rat nerves it was significantly lower than in the corresponding controls and moreover it did not even reach the number found in the nerves of undenervated deficient rats. Finally, the caliber distribution of myelinated fibres in undenervated and denervated deficient rats shows a relative percent increase in the number of greatest axons and a decrease in smaller axons. This result confirm the vitamin E to be an important factor of the normal process of nerve regeneration.