A morphological study of myelin sheath changes in sciatic nerve injury and repair

Objective To explore the morphological changes of myelin sheath in injury and repair of sciatic nerve and evaluate the value of staining methods used to show the myelin sheath.?Methods Animal model of sciatic nerve injury was prepared,the morphological changes of the myelin sheath in the group of 30 days,90 days after sciatic nerve injury was compared by using osmic acid staining, modified hematoxylin staining and silver staining respectively.?Results There were significant differences in the morphological changes of myelin sheath between the injury side and the control side after injury of two groups by the three staining methods. Severe degeneration was observed 30 days after injury.Almost normal myelin sheath was observed after 90 days.?Conclusion The above three staining methods can be used effectively to observe the morphological changes of nerve injury. The modified hemotoxylin method is the simplest and efficient way to show the structure of myelin sheath and its relation with the axon. The osmic acid method is fit for imaging quatitative analysis of myelin sheath.