Open AccessChitin scaffold combined with autologous small nerve repairs sciatic nerve defects
Author(s) -
Bo Wang,
Chang Lu,
Zhong-Yang Liu,
Shuai Han,
Wei Pi,
Dianying Zhang,
Yuhui Kou,
Baoguo Jiang
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
neural regeneration research/neural regeneration research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1876-7958
pISSN - 1673-5374
DOI - 10.4103/1673-5374.324859
Subject(s) - sciatic nerve , epineurium , epineurial repair , regeneration (biology) , medicine , nerve guidance conduit , scaffold , peripheral nerve , transplantation , tissue engineering , surgery , anatomy , biomedical engineering , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
Although autologous nerve transplantation is the gold standard for treating peripheral nerve defects, it has many clinical limitations. As an alternative, various tissue-engineered nerve grafts have been developed to substitute for autologous nerves. In this study, a novel nerve graft composed of chitin scaffolds and a small autologous nerve was used to repair sciatic nerve defects in rats. The novel nerve graft greatly facilitated regeneration of the sciatic nerve and myelin sheath, reduced atrophy of the target muscle, and effectively restored neurological function. When the epineurium of the small autogenous nerve was removed, the degree of nerve regeneration was similar to that which occurs after autogenous nerve transplantation. These findings suggest that our novel nerve graft might eventually be a new option for the construction of tissue-engineered nerve scaffolds. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Peking University People's Hospital (approval No. 2019PHE27) on October 18, 2019.