Abstract
Peripheral nerve injury still remains a major clinical challenge, since the available solutions lead to dysfunctional nerve regeneration. Even though autologous nerve grafts are the gold standard, tissue engineered nerve guidance grafts are valid alternatives. Nerve growth factor (NGF) is the most potent neurotrophic factor. The development of a nerve guidance graft able to locally potentiate the interaction between injured neurons and autologous NGF would be a safer and more effective alternative to grafts that just release NGF. Herein, a biofunctional electrospun fibrous mesh (eFM) was developed through the selective retrieval of NGF from rat blood plasma. The neurite outgrowth induced by the eFM-NGF systems was assessed by culturing rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells for 7 days, without medium supplementation. The biological results showed that this NGF delivery system stimulates neuronal differentiation, enhancing the neurite growth more than the control condition.
Highlights
3B’s Research Group, I3Bs-Research Institute on Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics of University of Minho, Headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence on Tissue Engineering and Regenerative
The safety and efficacy of the electrospun fibrous mesh (eFM) functionalized with autologous Nerve growth factor (NGF) was validated in vitro, demonstrated by the neurogenic potency in enhancing neurite growth
The results showed that our envisioned autologous approach is more effective in promoting neurite extension and outgrowth, avoiding the use of medium supplementation
Summary
Peripheral nerve injury still remains a major clinical challenge, since the available solutions lead to dysfunctional nerve regeneration. Even though autologous nerve grafts are the gold standard, tissue engineered nerve guidance grafts are valid alternatives. The development of a nerve guidance graft able to locally potentiate the interaction between injured neurons and autologous NGF would be a safer and more effective alternative to grafts that just release NGF. Nerve regeneration remains an enormous clinical challenge following peripheral nerve damage [1], which can drastically affect the quality of life of patients. The surgical reconnection by end-to-end suturing is commonly used to bridge small peripheral nerve injury gaps [7,9]. The use of autografts to bridge peripheral nerve gaps can lead to permanent donor site morbidity and inadequate functional repair [8,10,14]. The recent advances in neural tissue engineering might be an alternative to conventional graft transplantation [16]
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