title: Functional motor recovery after peripheral nerve repair with an aligned nanofiber tubular conduit in a rat model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Current synthetic tubular conduits are inferior to nerve autograft for the repair of segmental peripheral nerve injuries. We examined motor outcomes with the use of longitudinally aligned poly (L-lactide-co-caprolactone) nanofiber conduits for repair of nerve gap injury in a rat model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten-millimeter segments of sciatic nerve were resected in 44 Lewis rats. The gaps were either left unrepaired (n = 6), repaired with nerve autograft (n = 19), or repaired with conduit (n = 19). After 12 weeks, nerve conduction latency, compound muscle action potential amplitude, muscle force and muscle mass were measured. The numbers of axons and axon diameters both within the grafts and distally were determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After 12 weeks, gastrocnemius isometric tetanic force and muscle mass for the conduit group reached 85 and 82% of autograft values, respectively. Nerve conduction and compound muscle action potential were not significantly different between these two groups, although the latter approached significance. There was no recovery in the unrepaired group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Muscle recovery for the animals treated with this aligned nanofiber conduit approached that of autograft, suggesting the importance of internal conduit structure for nerve repair.
authors.affiliation: San Francisco VA Medical Center, 4150 Clement Street Box 112, San Francisco, CA 94121, USA.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rengarajan
authors.forename: Qia
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Limburg
authors.forename: Sunil K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Joshi
authors.forename: Shyam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Hubert T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Alfred C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Kuo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D057139:Nanofibers; D059348:Peripheral Nerve Injuries / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011091:Polyesters; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D020127:Recovery of Function
chemical_list: D011091:Polyesters; C062968:lactide-caprolactone copolymer