Effects of immobilization of a limb on the maturation of a peripheral nerve in kittens.

Abstract

Right or left hindlimbs of kittens were immobilized in a plaster cast, in the resting position. Three groups of animals belonged to the same age group, one to older, and another to younger. Kittens in the same age group were subjected to progressively increasing periods of immobilization, the older group to a shorter and the younger to the longest period. By virtue of this arrangement, it was found that the demonstrated changes in the peripheral nerve, which included a decrease in the myelinated nerve fibre population and a reduction in the mean nerve fibre diameter, have been proportionate among the animals in the same age group, more pronounced in younger, and less so in older ones, indicating that in younger animals longer periods of immobilization lead to a greater degree of harmful effects, although it was also evident that younger animals attempt to adapt to such adverse conditions.