Regeneration of sensory but not motor axons following visceral nerve injury

Abstract

Following peripheral nerve injury, restoration of function may occur via the regeneration of injured axons or compensatory sprouting of spared axons. Injury to visceral nerves that control urogenital organs is a common consequence of pelvic surgery, however their capacity to reinnervate organs is poorly understood. To determine if and how sensory and motor connections to the bladder are re-established, a novel surgical model of visceral nerve injury was performed unilaterally in adult male Wistar rats. Bladder-projecting motor and sensory neurons in pelvic ganglia and lumbosacral dorsal root ganglia, respectively, were identified and characterised by retrograde tracing and immunofluorescence..