Effect of Crush Lesion on Radiolabelling of Ganglioside in Rat Peripheral Nerve

Left sciatic nerves of adult male Sprague‐Dawley rats were crushed and allowed to recover for 0, 1, 2, 4, 7, or 14 days. At each of these times both L‐5 dorsal root ganglia were injected with 100 μCi of [ 3 H]glucosamine. Two days later, dorsal root ganglia, lumbosacral trunks, and sciatic nerves were removed bilaterally. The amounts of radiolabelled ganglioside in crushed lumbosacral trunks were consistently higher than in the controls, with the largest difference occurring within 2 days from simultaneous crush and injection to killing (specimens labelled day 0). The largest difference in the amount of radiolabelled ganglioside between crushed and control sciatic nerve (4–9 days from crush to killing) occurred later than that of lumbosacral trunk, but no significant difference occurred within the first 3 days following crush. There was only a slightly higher radioactivity in gangliosides totalled from all three anatomical specimens of crushed than in control nerves. The neutral nonganglioside lipid and acid‐precipitable fraction followed patterns of synthesis and accumulation similar to those of the gangliosides. These findings indicate that after nerve crush gangliosides, glucosamine‐labelled neutral nonganglioside lipids, and glycoproteins accumulate close to the proximal end of the regenerating axon. This accumulation could serve as a reservoir to increase the ganglioside concentration in the growth cone membrane.