Preferential loss of unmyelinated L7 dorsal root axons following sciatic nerve resection in kittens.

Some time following sciatic nerve resection in kittens the number of L7 spinal ganglion neurons appears to have decreased more than the number of L7 dorsal root axons, and the proportion of unmyelinated axons is unchanged. The present results show that removal of the sciatic neuroma results in a clearly subnormal proportion of unmyelinated axon profiles. This indicates that recurrent sprouts from the neuroma had entered the dorsal root and that spinal ganglion neurons with unmyelinated axons are preferentially lost after axotomy in kittens.