Abstract
The successful introduction of innovative treatment strategies into clinical practise strongly depends on the availability of effective experimental models and their reliable pre-clinical assessment. Considering pre-clinical research for peripheral nerve repair and reconstruction, the far most used nerve regeneration model in the last decades is the sciatic nerve injury and repair model. More recently, the use of the median nerve injury and repair model has gained increasing attention due to some significant advantages it provides compared to sciatic nerve injury. Outstanding advantages are the availability of reliable behavioural tests for assessing posttraumatic voluntary motor recovery and a much lower impact on the animal wellbeing. In this article, the potential application of the median nerve injury and repair model in pre-clinical research is reviewed. In addition, we provide a synthetic overview of a variety of methods that can be applied in this model for nerve regeneration assessment. This article is aimed at helping researchers in adequately adopting this in vivo model for pre-clinical evaluation of peripheral nerve reconstruction as well as for interpreting the results in a translational perspective.
Highlights
Peripheral nerve injuries are commonly caused by motor vehicle, domestic, work or sport accidents or during surgeries (Jones et al, 2016)
This review provides an overview on the use of the median nerve injury and repair experimental model in pre-clinical research
7 mm-long nerve repaired with muscle-in vein graft 1, 2, and 3 months Electrophysiology, grasping test, (n = 8); Control: autologous nerve graft (n = 8)
Summary
Peripheral nerve injuries are commonly caused by motor vehicle, domestic, work or sport accidents or during surgeries (iatrogenic nerve injuries) (Jones et al, 2016). Nerve injuries can lead to motor and sensory deficits that may result in disabilities permanently compromising the patients’ quality of life. The “gold standard” reconstructive technique for bridging a nerve gap is autologous nerve grafting. This technique, is accompanied by important drawbacks such as the donor site morbidity, the need of additional surgery and the limited availability of graft material for extended repair (Konofaos and Ver Halen, 2013; Faroni et al, 2015).
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