title: Emerging issues in peripheral nerve repair.
abstract: It is today widely acknowledged that nerve repair is now more than a matter of perfect microsurgical reconstruction only and that, to further improve clinical outcome, the involvement of different scientific disciplines is required. This evolving reconstructive/regenerative approach is based on the interdisciplinary and integrated pillars of tissue engineering such as reconstructive microsurgery, transplantation and biomaterials. In this paper, some of the most promising innovations for the tissue engineering of nerves, emerging from basic science investigation, are critically overviewed with special focus on those approaches that appear today to be more suitable for clinical translation.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Institute of the "Cavalieri Ottolenghi" Foundation (NICO) & Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Torino 10043, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Geuna
authors.affiliation: Department of Traumatology, Microsurgery Unit, C.T.O. Hospital, Torino 10126, Italy.
authors.forename: Pierluigi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tos
authors.affiliation: Department of Traumatology, Microsurgery Unit, C.T.O. Hospital, Torino 10126, Italy.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Battiston
keywords: artificial hollow tubes; biomaterials; cell and tissue transplantation; gene therapy; microsurgery; muscle-vein-combined tubes; nerve reconstruction; neural regeneration; non-nervous guides; peripheral nervous system; tissue engineering