A silk sericin/silicone nerve guidance conduit promotes regeneration of a transected sciatic nerve.
Peripheral nerve gap defects lead to significant loss of sensory or motor function. Tissue engineering has become an important alternative to nerve repair. Sericin, a major component of silk, is a natural protein whose value in tissue engineering has just begun to be explored. Here, the first time use of sericin in vivo is reported as a long-term implant for peripheral nerve regeneration. A sericin nerve guidance conduit is designed and fabricated. This conduit is highly porous with mechanical strength matching peripheral nerve tissue. It supports Schwann cell proliferation and is capable of up-regulating the transcription of glial cell derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor in Schwann cells. The sericin conduit wrapped with a silicone conduit (sericin/silicone double conduits) is used for bridging repair of a 5 mm gap in a rat sciatic nerve transection model. The sericin/silicone double conduits achieve functional recovery comparable to that of autologous nerve grafting as evidenced by drastically improved nerve function and morphology. Importantly, this improvement is mainly attributed to the sericin conduit as the silicone conduit alone only produces marginal functional recovery. This sericin/silicone-double-conduit strategy offers an efficient and valuable alternative to autologous nerve grafting for repairing damaged peripheral nerve.
Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Hongjian
H
Xie
Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Wen
W
Yang
Department of Hand Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Jianghai
J
Chen
Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Jinxiang
J
Zhang
Department of Hand Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Xiaochen
X
Lu
Department of Hand Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Xiaobo
X
Zhao
Department of Cardiology, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Kun
K
Huang
Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Huili
H
Li
Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Panpan
P
Chang
Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.|Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Zheng
Z
Wang
Center for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.|Department of Laboratory Medicine, Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, 430022, China.
Lin
L
Wang
D000818:Animals; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D012831:Bombyx / Q000737:chemistry; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D048091:Guided Tissue Regeneration; D008297:Male; D009416:Nerve Regeneration; D019736:Prostheses and Implants; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012583:Schwann Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D047030:Sericins / Q000737:chemistry*; D012828:Silicones / Q000737:chemistry*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D047030:Sericins; D012828:Silicones
nerve guidance conduit; nerve regeneration; peripheral nerve injury; sericin; tissue engineering