| Abstrakt: |
This study was conducted to determine the morphologic effects of a single, high dose of adriamycin on rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons in the presence of sciatic nerve crush. The left sciatic nerve of each rat was crushed either before or after adriamycin treatment. At termination of the study, thin-sections of plastic-embedded DRG specimens were examined by light microscopy. Numbers of necrotic neurons in rats subjected to nerve crush on day 1 followed by drug treatment on day 3 were compared to numbers of necrotic neurons in animals receiving nerve crush on day 3 preceded by drug on day 1. The percentage of necrotic neurons seen on the crushed side was similar to that on the uncrushed side. Also the percent of necrotic neurons was reduced when nerve crush was done before treatment (3.7%) rather than after (7.7%) which suggests a protective effect. The difference between the mean percent of necrotic neurons in rats subjected to nerve crush before adriamycin treatment as compared to after drug treatment approached statistical significance (p = 0.056). |
