Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: LU, XINYUE.Multiple Layer Nerve Guide for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration Using Carbon Nanotubes.(Under the direction of Martin W. King).When a motor, sensory or sympathetic peripheral nerve has been damaged, injured or severed, there are currently a number of therapies to reconnect the proximal end to the distal stump.Some of these treatments involve the use of a resorbable tubular nerve guide that not only serves as a conduit to enable the proximal neurons to grow in the direction of and eventually reconnect to their distal partner, but also protects the axons and Schwann cells from being diverted from their desired pathway by the inflammatory response of infiltrating macrophages and fibroblasts.Nerve guide conduits have the potential to be the preferred option in clinical nerve repair for gaps of up to 30 mm.The key to successful treatment for a peripheral nerve lesion is to lead the axonal regeneration towards the distal endoneural stump, where after reconnection electrical signals can reestablish the neural function.In addition, the nerve guide must have sufficient compression resistance to serve as a protective envelope around the nerve during the period of nerve regeneration.Polylactic acid (PLA) braided tubes are flexible, biocompatible and biodegradable.Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nano-scale materials with electrical conductivity.In this study, by including aligned carbon nanotubes within a double layer PLA braided structure, we concluded that the presence of the carbon nanotubes improved the tensile strength, compression resistance and kink recovery of the prototype nerve guides.In order to evaluate the biological performance, the nerve guide samples were cultured in vitro for 7 days with 3T3 fibroblast cells.All four nerve guide prototypes were found to be biocompatible and provide equivalent conditions for the proliferation and attachment of fibroblasts regardless of whether they included carbon nanotubes or not.However, the cells did not migrate along the alignment direction of the CNTs.This may require an externally applied electrical potential.Even
Author: Xinyue Lu
Language: English
Subfield: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2607263659