Virginia Research Day 2022

Medical Student Research Biomedical

09 Obturator Nerve Macro Analysis And Its Association With Sex

Alekhya Peruri 1 ; Alexandra Morgan 1 ; Mason Yount 1 ; Jonathan Millard 1 Kelly Roballo 1 Corresponding author: aperuri@vcom.edu

VCOM Virginia

between males and females were analyzed, overall males presented 10.54 fascicles and females 10.83 on average, with no statistical significance (p= 0.43). These differences between males and females support the complexity of successful nerve regeneration following a nerve injury due to inherent anatomical differences. Since nerves were found to be larger in diameter in males when compared to females, nerve diameter may be an important characteristic to consider when matching nerves between donor and recipient. If a male is given a nerve from a female, the recipient may lose the capability to fully recover nerve function. This study allows us to understand nerve physiology from a macro- organization level to help establish predictable intraneural patterns. Future directions include morphometric analysis which will give us further data regarding fascicular anatomy.

superior iliac spine to the medial malleolus). Due to known anatomical differences between male and females, we will be comparing these characteristics between both sexes. Obturator nerves (n=50) from both the left and right sides were isolated from 25 formalin-fixed whole-body donors. Each nerve was divided into proximal, medial, and distal thirds which were then cross sectioned into three. For quantification nerve sections were photomicrograph using a with light microscopy and an OptixCam Summit K2 camera. From the taken images, nerve diameter and fascicle numbers were quantified using ImageJ software. Preliminary data has shown marked differences in nerve diameter between male and female obturator nerves. The average nerve diameter was 2.67mm in males and 1.91mm in females. An independent group T-test was conducted to observe the statistical difference of nerve diameter size between males and females, with p-value = 0.0003, indicating statistical significance. Additionally, the difference in fascicle numbers

When it comes to peripheral nerve injury, there is still a lot to be discovered about how injuries interfere with a nerve’s morphology and its fascicular anatomy. This disruption usually has consequences on the nerve’s ability to regenerate and its ability to functionally recover. Often, injured nerves will need to be replaced with a nerve from another individual or conduits leading to poor outcomes due to a lack of donor-recipient compatibility. However, if donor nerve morphology were better matched to the recipient nerve’s morphology before transplantation, then the outcome may result in improved nerve regeneration after injury and following transplantation. By taking into consideration donor and recipient sex and age, this study aims to develop a method that will determine how to best match nerve morphologies between donor and recipient for transplantation following a peripheral nerve injury. In this study, the measured characteristics include nerve diameter, number of fascicles, length of the tibia, and length of the leg (from the anterior

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