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Fabrication of semipermeable hollow fiber membranes with highly aligned texture for nerve guidance
Author(s) -
Zhang Ning,
Zhang Changhong,
Wen Xuejun
Publication year - 2005
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.30495
Subject(s) - materials science , membrane , fabrication , dorsal root ganglion , biomedical engineering , composite material , anatomy , dorsum , alternative medicine , pathology , biology , medicine , genetics
In order to improve the guidance potential of a nerve entubulation bridging device, highly aligned textures were formed on the inner surface of semipermeable hollow fiber membranes (HFMs) during the wet phase inversion process. By precisely controlling the fabrication parameters, such as polymer solution flow rate, coagulant solution flow rate, and the air‐gap distance, also called drop height, different‐sized aligned grooves can be fabricated on the inner surface of HFMs. Preliminary studies using in vitro dorsal root ganglion (DRG) regeneration assay showed that both the alignment and outgrowth rate of regenerating axons increased significantly on HFMs with aligned textures compared to those on HFMs with a smooth inner surface. Studies in progress are evaluating axonal outgrowth and regeneration using in vivo sciatic‐nerve and spinal‐cord‐injury models. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res, 2005