Sciatic Nerve Crush Injury Model in Rats

All animal procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of University of Phayao, Thailand (approval number 640104005). A total of 30 adult male Wistar rats weighing 200-220 g were purchased from Nomura Siam International Co., Ltd. (Thailand) and kept in a controlled room (25±2°C) with free access to food and water before the experiment. The rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (control, sham, sciatic nerve crush (SNC), SNC + 20 mg/kg of PB, and SNC + 40 mg/kg of PB, n=6 in each group). The SNC injury was performed as described previously (3 (link)). Briefly, a single dose of 50 mg/kg sodium pentobarbital was injected intraperitoneal to anesthetize the rats. A skin incision was made in the middle of the left thigh. The muscle layers were carefully split using blunt scissors at the intermuscular septum to disclose the sciatic nerve. The nerve was clamped with artery forceps (straight, 12 cm) for 30 s, 1 cm before the bifurcation. The sham rats received the same operation but without clamping. After operation, the skin was sutured with a nylon suture. In PB groups, the rats were treated with PB dissolved in 0.5% of carboxymethylcellulose sodium (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) once daily by oral gavage for 28 consecutive days after SNC.