Effect of nerve section on the spinal distribution of neighboring nerves.

The spinal cord distribution of axonal terminals of peripheral nerves that innervate the skin of the upper medial thigh was examined in rats using transganglionic transport of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and wheat-germ agglutinin-conjugated HRP (WGA-HRP). Chronic transection of the sciatic nerve or both the sciatic and saphenous nerves did not alter this distribution. Therefore, long-distance sprouting of intact 'thigh nerve' afferents in the dorsal horn is apparently not the mechanism whereby spinal dorsal horn neurons deafferented by sciatic and saphenous neurectomy, gain novel receptive fields in the cutaneous distribution of neighbouring intact nerves of the thigh.