Developments for Stimulation and Analysis of Nerve Regeneration

Research on nerve regeneration has been devoted to developing new methods to enhance growth of axonal fibers. Both chemical (growth factors, hormones, drugs, etc) and electrical [direct current (DC) and pulsed electromagnetic fields (PEMF)] applications have proven fairly successful. In this report we describe experiments using noninvasive PEMF on a crush nerve model showing that the results obtained with this technique are equal to results obtained with any chemical method. We also discuss the latest state-of-the-art methods employed in studying basic and clinical aspects of nerve growth and pathology. Finally, we attempt to predict future technological advances to be used in this research field.