Morphological and morphometric parameters of sural nerves of Wistar rats are not gender during development.

Abstract

It is known that gender influences the re‐myelination, pain sensibilization, neural regulation of the vascular function, in vitro axonal growth and the conduction velocity of nerves. However, little is known about the influence of gender on peripheral nerves development. Previous studies from our laboratory described the development of the sural nerves in female rats [1] and concluded that at 180‐days of life the sural nerves are fully developed. We compared the morphological and morphometric aspects of different segments of the sural nerves in male (N=6) and female (N=6) adult (180 days of life) Wistar rats. 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. The results showed that adult males are larger and heavier than the females. Nevertheless, there were no significant differences between genders, when the sural nerve fascicular parameters were compared. Thus, the morphological and morphometric parameters of sural nerve are not gender related.