Abstract: Objective To explore the effects of nerve growth factor (NGF) and low frequency electricity stimulus on the configurations of skeletal muscle cells and the change of muscle fibre types in the denervated skeletal muscle separately.Methods The denervated rat model was established and model animals were injected with the NGF and given the stimulus (frequency=2 Hz) about 30 days. The configurations and the change of muscle fibre types were observed by immunohistochemistry and image analysis.Results The muscle fibre was in chaos and the boundary was not obvious among cells in the denervated rats; the muscle fibre of the denervated rats with NGF injection and low frequency electricity stimulus was more regular and the boundary of cells was clearer, the cells number was more than those of the denervated rats. Compared to normal rats, the proportion of Ⅰ muscle fibre in the denervated rats increased ( P<0.05), whereas the proportion of Ⅱ muscle fibre decreased ( P<0.05); it had no significant differences of the two types of muscle fibre between the denervated rats with NGF injection, low frequency electricity stimulus and the denervated rats ( P<0.05).Conclusion NGF injection and low frequency electricity stimulus can make the configurations of denervated muscle to better.

Key words: nerve growth factor, electricity stimulus, muscle type