ABSTRACT
An experimental study on regeneration of vascularized muscles after denervation was
carried out on a total of 73 adult rat gastrocnemius muscles. A vascularized muscle
graft harvested from the gluteal region was transplanted orthotopically with its vascular
pedicle. A transected motor nerve of the graft was sutured under the operating microscope.
The rats were sacrificed at intervals throughout 12 postoperative months, and biopsied
muscles were processed for histologic, immunohistochemical, and composing protein
analysis studies. After degeneration of the originally transplanted muscle fibers,
regenerating cells such as myoblasts and myotubes developed into mature muscle fibers
up to week 8 after surgery. These results suggest that in the regenerating mechanism
of vascularized muscle grafts, there are both degenerating and regenerating processes
in the transplanted muscles.
