Predegenerated peripheral nerve grafts facilitate neurite outgrowth from the hippocampus.

Autologous predegenerated (10 days after transection) (PD) distal stumps of rat sciatic nerves and nonpredegenerated (NPD) nerves were implanted into the hippocampus. Light microscopic examination of sections treated by hematoxylin-eosin and Nauta-Gygax silver method was performed at 2, 4, 8, and 16 weeks following implantation and revealed that two weeks after surgery PD implants were better connected with the surrounding brain tissue than NPD nerve fragments. Greater differences were observed at the 4th week of the experiment. Predegenerated grafts were better vascularized and contained many fibers bridging the site of anastomosis. At the 8th and 16th week, there were, in the microscopic preparations, no visible differences between PD sciatic nerve grafts and NPD ones.