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Sciatic nerve regeneration by transplantation of Schwann cells via erythropoietin controlled‐releasing polylactic acid/multiwalled carbon nanotubes/gelatin nanofibrils neural guidance conduit
Author(s) -
Salehi Majid,
NaseriNosar Mahdi,
EbrahimiBarough Somayeh,
Nourani Mohammdreza,
Khojasteh Arash,
Hamidieh AmirAli,
Amani Amir,
Farzamfar Saeed,
Ai Jafar
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.33952
Subject(s) - sciatic nerve , nerve guidance conduit , materials science , transplantation , gelatin , gastrocnemius muscle , regeneration (biology) , biomedical engineering , polylactic acid , peripheral nerve injury , chemistry , anatomy , medicine , surgery , composite material , skeletal muscle , biochemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , polymer
The current study aimed to enhance the efficacy of peripheral nerve regeneration using an electrically conductive biodegradable porous neural guidance conduit for transplantation of allogeneic Schwann cells (SCs). The conduit was produced from polylactic acid (PLA), multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and gelatin nanofibrils (GNFs) coated with the recombinant human erythropoietin‐loaded chitosan nanoparticles (rhEpo‐CNPs). The PLA/MWCNTs/GNFs/rhEpo‐CNPs conduit had the porosity of 85.78 ± 0.70%, the contact angle of 77.65 ± 1.91° and the ultimate tensile strength and compressive modulus of 5.51 ± 0.13 MPa and 2.66 ± 0.34 MPa, respectively. The conduit showed the electrical conductivity of 0.32 S cm −1 and lost about 11% of its weight after 60 days in normal saline. The produced conduit was able to release the rhEpo for at least 2 weeks and exhibited favorable cytocompatibility towards SCs. For functional analysis, the conduit was seeded with 1.5 × 10 4 SCs and implanted into a 10 mm sciatic nerve defect of Wistar rat. After 14 weeks, the results of sciatic functional index, hot plate latency, compound muscle action potential amplitude, weight‐loss percentage of wet gastrocnemius muscle and Histopathological examination using hematoxylin‐eosin and Luxol fast blue staining demonstrated that the produced conduit had comparable nerve regeneration to the autograft, as the gold standard to bridge the nerve gaps. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1463–1476, 2018.