COMPETITIVE REINNERVATION OF RAT MUSCLES BY THEIR OWN AND FOREIGN NERVES

Abstract

The tibial and peroneal nerves were cut and both proximal stumps were connected by means of a forked artery serving as guide channel to the single distal tibial stump. Thus, the plantar extensor muscles were furnished with regenerated nerve fibers from their old and from a foreign source under comparable conditions. After regeneration was completed, the nerve sources were stimulated and their respective contributions to the muscles detd. from the isometric tension records. Both nerves were found to have shared the muscles at random with no preference of the original over the foreign fibers.