title: Polylactic-co-glycolic acid microspheres containing three neurotrophic factors promote sciatic nerve repair after injury.
abstract: A variety of neurotrophic factors have been shown to repair the damaged peripheral nerve. However, in clinical practice, nerve growth factor, neurotrophin-3 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor are all peptides or proteins that may be rapidly deactivated at the focal injury site; their local effective concentration time following a single medication cannot meet the required time for spinal axons to regenerate and cross the glial scar. In this study, we produced polymer sustained-release microspheres based on the polylactic-co-glycolic acid copolymer; the microspheres at 300-μm diameter contained nerve growth factor, neurotrophin-3 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Six microspheres were longitudinally implanted into the sciatic nerve at the anastomosis site, serving as the experimental group; while the sciatic nerve in the control group was subjected to the end-to-end anastomosis using 10/0 suture thread. At 6 weeks after implantation, the lower limb activity, weight of triceps surae muscle, sciatic nerve conduction velocity and the maximum amplitude were obviously better in the experimental group than in the control group. Compared with the control group, more regenerating nerve fibers were observed and distributed in a dense and ordered manner with thicker myelin sheaths in the experimental group. More angiogenesis was also visible. Experimental findings indicate that polylactic-co-glycolic acid composite microspheres containing nerve growth factor, neurotrophin-3 and brain-derived neurotrophic factor can promote the restoration of sciatic nerve in rats after injury.
authors.affiliation: Health Management Center, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Yue
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Ze-Peng
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Yiyang Municipal Central Hospital, Yiyang, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Zhou-Yun
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Shi-Jie
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Si-Yu
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedics, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Qing-Shan
authors.initials: QS
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Gynecology, Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4369-8747
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Xue
keywords: biological compatibility; brain-derived neurotrophic factor; microspheres; nerve growth factor; nerve injury; nerve regeneration; nerve repair; neurotrophin-3; polylactic-co-glycolic acid copolymer