Description of the microscopic anatomy of sural nerves in newborn rats.

Abstract

The morphology of the sural nerve is widely study, however, little is known about the morphometry of this nerve in newborns. We describe the morphological and morphometric aspects of different segments of the sural nerve in female Wistar rats (N=6) with 15 days of life. The animals were anesthetized, perfused and the right and left sural nerves were removed and prepared for epoxy resin embedding and light microscopy. Morphometric analysis was performed with the aid of computer software, and took into consideration the fascicle area and diameter, as well as myelinated fiber number, density, area and diameter. Comparisons between segments and sides were performed and significant differences were considered when p<0.05. There were no differences on the morphology and morphometry between the segments and sides of sural nerve in female Wistar rats with 15 days of life. Comparing the present results with previous data from our laboratory [1], we conclude that the newborns have similar fascicular parameters to those of 30 days‐old animals leading to the conclusion that the sural nerve is fully developed at birth and will grow following the animals’ body weight increase with age.