Impaired Limb Functional Outcome of Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Is Marked by Incomplete Recovery of Paw Muscle Atrophy and Brain Functional Connectivity in a Rat Forearm Nerve Repair Model

Figure 5

The change of dS-M1 connectivity and paw muscle atrophy following PNR. (a) The FC of the dS-M1 remains similar among the three groups until week 8, when the FC of the nerve injury and the repair group was statistically different from that of the sham group. (b) The degree of muscle atrophy was gradually aggravated from week 2 postsurgery in the nerve injury and repair groups. However, the nerve repair group demonstrated only partial recovery of muscle volume at week 8. (c) The muscle atrophy of the repair and the injury groups was shown in an exemplary graph. Note that remarkable muscle atrophy of the injured side was observed at week 8 in the injury group, but not in the repair group. The adduction of the 1st metacarpal was also observed due to the thenar atrophy of the paw. (d) We observed a significant correlation between the dS-M1 FC and the degree of muscle atrophy in rats with nerve injury and repair at week 8. compared to the control.

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)