Brachial plexus anatomy in the miniature swine as compared to human

Abstract

Brachial plexus injury (BPI) occurs when the brachial plexus is compressed, stretched, or avulsed. Although rodents are commonly used to study BPI, these models poorly mimic human BPI due to the discrepancy in size. The objective of this study was to compare the brachial plexus between human and Wisconsin Miniature SwineTM (WMSTM), which are approximately the weight of an average human (68–91 kg), to determine if swine would be a suitable model for studying BPI mechanisms and treatments. To analyze the gross anatomy, WMS brachial plexuses were dissected both anteriorly and posteriorly. For histological analysis, sections from various nerves of human and WMS brachial plexuses were fixed in 2.5% glutaraldehyde, and postfixed with 2% osmium tetroxide. Subsequently paraffin sections were counter-stained with Masson's Trichrome. Gross anatomy revealed that the separation into three trunks and three cords is significantly less developed in the swine than in human. In swine, it takes the form of upper, middle, and lower systems with ventral and dorsal components. Histological evaluation of selected nerves revealed differences in nerve trunk diameters and the number of myelinated axons in the two species. The WMS had significantly fewer myelinated axons than humans in median (p = 0.0049), ulnar (p = 0.0002), and musculocutaneous nerves (p = 0.0454). The higher number of myelinated axons in these nerves for humans is expected because there is a high demand of fine motor and sensory functions in the human hand. Due to the stronger shoulder girdle muscles in WMS, the WMS suprascapular and axillary nerves were larger than in human. Overall, the WMS brachial plexus is similar in size and origin to human making them a very good model to study BPI. Future studies analyzing the effects of BPI in WMS should be conducted.