Objectives:

To investigate the effect of taurine on the facial nervous regeneration by applying it to rabbits intravenously after the formation of peripheral partial facial lesion.

Methods:

10 male New Zealand albino type rabbits’ facial nerves were injured by grasping with a clamp for 3 minutes. Right facial nerves of rabbits were employed as control group. Right facial nerve lesion was made in all rabbits as with a clamp. Described electrophysiological studies were performed preoperatively as well as postoperatively on the 10th and 45th days, thus amplitude and area of CMAP for right facial nerves were obtained at these time intervals. Two months later, left facial nerves of rabbits were injured in the same way and immediately after the injury taurine was administered with a daily dose 100 mg intravenously. Again, electrophysiological studies were performed preoperatively and postoperatively on the 10th and 45th days and same electrophysiological parameters were obtained for left facial nerves.

Results:

There was not a statistically significant interaction between time and group variables for amplitude and area measures (p=0.151 and 0.131 for Wilks’ Lambda for amplitude and area respectively).

Conclusion:

In our study we could not find any positive effect of taurine on axonal regeneration process after experimental facial nerve lesion.

ÖZET

Amaç:

Tavşanlarda periferik fasyal parsiyel hasarından sonra taurinin fasyal sinir rejenarasyonuna etkisini incelemektir.

Yöntem:

10 erkek Yeni Zelanda tipi tavşan fasyal sinirleri klemple 3 dakika sıkıştırılarak hasar verildi. Tavşanların sağ fasyal sinirleri kontrol grubu olarak oluşturuldu. Sağ fasyal sinir lezyonu tüm tavşanlarda klemp ile yapıldı. Elektrofizyolojik çalışmalar preoperatif, posto-peratif 10. ve 45. günlerde yapıldı; amplitüd bileşik kas aksiyon potansiyeli sağ fasyal sinir için bakıldı. iki ay sonra, sol fasyal sinirler aynı yolla hasara uğratıldı ve hasardan hemen sonra günlük 100 mg iv. verildi. Preoperatif ve postoperatif 10. ve 45. günlerde aynı elektrofizyolojik çalışmalarla sol fasyal sinir incelendi.

Bulgular:

Zaman ve grup açısından amplitüd ve alan olarak istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark mevcut değildi (p=0.151 and 0.131 Wilks' Lambda sırasıyla amplitüd ve alan için).

Sonuç:

Çalışmamızda taurinin aksonal rejenerasyona pozitif bir etkisi tespit edilememiştir.

Keywords: Taurine, nerve regeneration, compound muscle action potentials