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Bridging a 30‐mm nerve defect using collagen filaments
Author(s) -
Yoshii Satoru,
Oka Masanori,
Shima Mitsuhiro,
Taniguchi Ataru,
Akagi Masao
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part a
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1552-4965
pISSN - 1549-3296
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.a.10103
Subject(s) - sciatic nerve , regeneration (biology) , axon , epineurial repair , anatomy , nerve guidance conduit , peripheral nerve , bridge (graph theory) , materials science , scaffold , biomedical engineering , medicine , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
This article describes a 30‐mm regeneration of severed peripheral nerve axons along collagen filaments. Two thousand or 4000 31‐mm‐long collagen filaments were grafted to bridge a 30‐mm defect of the rat sciatic nerve. A collagen tube was grafted as a control. The mean number and mean fiber diameter of regenerated myelinated axons were 330 ± 227 and 2.7 ± 0.9 μm in the distal end of the 2000 collagen‐filaments nerve guide, and 564 ± 275 and 2.5 ± 1.1 μm in the distal end of the 4000 collagen‐filaments nerve guide at 12 weeks postoperatively, whereas in the distal end of the collagen tube, no regenerated axon was found. These results suggest that the collagen filaments guide axons of the rat's sciatic nerve to regenerate for 30 mm and act as a scaffold for axonal regeneration. Thirty‐millimeter nerve regeneration of a 1‐mm‐diameter rat sciatic nerve by an artificial nerve guarantees a clinical application of the implant which should be very important for patients and surgeons. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res 67A: 467–474, 2003