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Chitosan conduits filled with simvastatin/Pluronic F‐127 hydrogel promote peripheral nerve regeneration in rats
Author(s) -
Guo Qi,
Liu Can,
Hai Bao,
Ma Teng,
Zhang Wen,
Tan Jie,
Fu Xin,
Wang Hong,
Xu Yingsheng,
Song Chunli
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.33890
Subject(s) - sciatic nerve , gastrocnemius muscle , regeneration (biology) , nerve guidance conduit , neurotrophic factors , neurotrophin , nerve growth factor , peripheral nerve injury , chemistry , compound muscle action potential , axon , simvastatin , anatomy , endocrinology , medicine , electrophysiology , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , skeletal muscle , receptor
Treating peripheral nerve defects represents a clinical challenge, and nerve conduits lacking an internal scaffold lead to limited large nerve gap regeneration. Here, we bridged 10‐mm sciatic nerve defects in rats with a chitosan conduit filled with 0, 0.5, or 1.0 mg of simvastatin in Pluronic F‐127 hydrogel. We assessed subsequent nerve regeneration using the sciatic functional index (SFI), electrophysiological assessments, Fluoro‐Gold (FG) retrograde tracing, gastrocnemius muscle mass measurements, and histological and immunohistochemical assessments of nerve regeneration. Ten weeks after implantation, the chitosan conduit filled with simvastatin/Pluronic F‐127 hydrogel promoted nerve regeneration; there were significant increases in the SFI, compound muscle action potential peak amplitude, motor nerve conduction velocity, FG‐labeled neuron number in the dorsal root ganglia, myelin sheath thickness, axon diameter, gastrocnemius wet weight, and muscle fiber area percentage in the gastrocnemius muscle (all p < 0.05). The expression levels of neurotrophic factors, such as pleiotrophin, hepatocyte growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, and glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor, were also found to be increased. The results suggest that chitosan conduits filled with simvastatin/Pluronic F‐127 hydrogel improved peripheral nerve regeneration and functional recovery in rats, which may have been related to the increased expression of several endogenous neurotrophic factors. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 787–799, 2018.