title: Viscoelasticity of repaired sciatic nerve by poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) tubes.
abstract: Medical-grade synthetic poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) polymer can be used as a biomaterial for nerve repair because of its good biocompatibility, biodegradability and adjustable degradation rate. The stress relaxation and creep properties of peripheral nerve can be greatly improved by repair with poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) tubes. Ten sciatic nerve specimens were harvested from fresh corpses within 24 hours of death, and were prepared into sciatic nerve injury models by creating a 10 mm defect in each specimen. Defects were repaired by anastomosis with nerve autografts and poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) tubes. Stress relaxation and creep testing showed that at 7 200 seconds, the sciatic nerve anastomosed by poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) tubes exhibited a greater decrease in stress and increase in strain than those anastomosed by nerve autografts. These findings suggest that poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) exhibits good viscoelasticity to meet the biomechanical require-ments for a biomaterial used to repair sciatic nerve injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Second Hospital, Jilin University, Chuangchun 130028, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Chengdong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Piao
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering Mechanics, Nanling Campus, Jilin University, Chuangchun 130022, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, China-Japan Union Hospital of Jilin University, Chuangchun 130031, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Guangyao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Base Department, Aviation University of the Air Force of China, Chuangchun 130022, Jilin Province, China.
authors.forename: Kun
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yang
keywords: biomaterial; creep; nerve autograft; neural regeneration; neuroregeneration; peripheral nerve injury; poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid); repair; sciatic nerve injury model; stress relaxation; transplantation