Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER SIX
Role of Physical Exercise for
Improving Posttraumatic Nerve
Regeneration
, ,1 , Cátia Pereira *
, , Sandra Amado , { ,
Paulo A.S. Armada-da-Silva *
,
* Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Cruz Quebrada-Dafundo, Portugal
Centro Interdisciplinar para o Estudo da Performance Humana (CIPER), Faculdade de Motricidade Humana,
Cruz Quebrada-Dafundo, Portugal
{ UIS—Unidade de Investiga¸˜o em Sa´de, Escola Superior de Sa´de de Leiria, Instituto Polit´cnico de Leiria,
Portugal
1 Corresponding author: e-mail address: parmada@fmh.ulisboa.pt
António P. Veloso *
Contents
1.
Introduction
126
2. The Effect of Exercise Training on Nerve Regeneration
127
2.1 Early studies
127
2.2 Physical exercise action on neurobiological mechanisms of nerve
regeneration
128
2.3 Effect of passive physical exercise on nerve regeneration and functional
recovery
137
3. Effect of Exercise on Neuropathic Pain
140
4. Translational Research and Clinical Studies
141
5. Conclusions
142
Acknowledgment
143
References
144
Abstract
Despite the great regenerative ability of the peripheral nervous system (PNS), traumatic
peripheral nerve damage often causes severe chronic disability. Rehabilitation following
PNS trauma usually employs therapeutic exercise in an attempt to reanimate the target
organs and stimulate functional recovery. Over the past years, important neurobiolog-
ical determinants of PNS regeneration and successful end-organ reinnervation were
unveiled. Such knowledge provides cues for designing novel strategies for treating
and rehabilitating traumatic PNS damage. Physical exercise, by means of treadmill or
wheel running, is neuroprotective and neuroregenerative. Research conducted on
rodents demonstrates that endurance exercise modulates several of the cellular and
molecular responses to peripheral nerve injury and by doing so it stimulates nerve
regeneration and functional recovery following experimental PNS injury. Treadmill run-
ning increases the number of regenerating neurons, the rate of axonal growth, and the
 
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