Michael F. Zanakis

Facilitated regeneration in the rat peripheral nervous system using applied electric fields

The efficacy of applied electric fields in promoting regeneration of the transected and frozen rat sciatic nerve was studied. Three groups were studied at 6, 12, and 18 days post-lesion; nerves treated with 1.5 microA of direct current where the cathode was oriented distal to the lesion, nerves treated with the anode distal to the lesion, or no current delivered to the nerve. Regeneration in this severely damaged mammalian peripheral nerve model was quantitated by counting fluorescent antibody profiles to neurofilament protein distal to the lesion site. The results indicated that only cathodal current, applied distal to the lesion, significantly increased the rate of regeneration compared to controls. Such results help to elucidate mechanisms by which electric fields can facilitate regeneration in the mammalian nervous system.

Mammalian optic nerve regeneration following the application of electric fields.

Previous studies have shown that the application of electric fields to the damaged mammalian nervous system is efficacious in promoting regeneration of peripheral nervous system axons. The present experiments were undertaken to determine whether exogenously applied electric fields can induce regenerative responses in the damaged mammalian central nervous system (CNS). In these studies, chronically delivered direct current was applied to the optic nerve, orienting the cathode distal to the lesion site. Histologic analyses at 3 weeks revealed that the damaged optic nerve did exhibit a regenerative response following treatment. We believe that this represents the first report of regenerative effects on the mammalian visual system using chronic DC electric fields, and we suggest that such galvanic treatment may be used alone or as an adjunct to promoting regeneration of the injured mammalian central nervous system.