C De Angelis, C Scarfò, M Falcinelli, E Perna, E Reda, M T Ramacci, L Angelucci
Morphologic and morphometric alterations of the sciatic nerve from old Sprague-Dawley rats and of lesioned tibial nerve from young and senescent Sprague-Dawley rats were studied. The possible therapeutical effects of treatment with acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) were also investigated, ALCAR being a compound shown to exert a beneficial pharmacological action on diabetic neuropathies. Nerve sections from animals sacrificed under anesthesia were stained with toluidine blue. In old rats, a 6-month treatment with ALCAR markedly reduced the percentage of myelinated fibers (MF) characterized by age-dependent morphologic alterations (4% in treated rats versus 11% in untreated ones), such as myelin balloons, infolded loops of myelin, myelin reduplication, and ovoids...
July 1994: Experimental Neurology