Combination of Acellular Nerve Graft and Schwann Cells-Like Cells for Rat Sciatic Nerve Regeneration

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the effect of tissue engineering nerve on repair of rat sciatic nerve defect. Methods. Forty-five rats with defective sciatic nerve were randomly divided into three groups. Rats in group A were repaired by acellular nerve grafts only. Rats in group B were repaired by tissue engineering nerve. In group C, rats were repaired by autogenous nerve grafts. After six and twelve weeks, sciatic nerve functional index (SFI), neural electrophysiology (NEP), histological and transmission electron microscope observation, recovery ratio of wet weight of gastrocnemius muscle, regenerated myelinated nerve fibers number, nerve fiber diameter, and thickness of the myelin sheath were measured to assess the effect. Results. After six and twelve weeks, the recovery ratio of SFI and wet weight of gastrocnemius muscle, NEP, and the result of regenerated myelinated nerve fibers in groups B and C were superior to that of group A (P < 0.05), and the difference between groups B and C was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Conclusion. The tissue engineering nerve composed of acellular allogenic nerve scaffold and Schwann cells-like cells can effectively repair the nerve defect in rats and its effect was similar to that of the autogenous nerve grafts.

Nerve Repair Using Decellularized Nerve Grafts in Rat Models. A Review of the Literature

“…There are three main decellularization protocols for the creation of a functional graft: the one described by Sondell et al (1998) and Hudson et al (2004) , and the combined Hudson protocol added with chondroitinase ABC by Krekoski et al (2001) . SP was used in 33% of the studies ( Jia et al, 2012 , 2017 ; Wang et al, 2012 ; Zhang et al, 2014 ; Zheng et al, 2014 ; Zhou et al, 2014 ; Zhu and Weihua, 2014 ; Huang et al, 2015 ; Garcia-Pérez et al, 2017 ; Zhu et al, 2015 , 2017 ); HP was used in 24% ( Saheb-Al-Zamani et al, 2013 ; Gao et al, 2014a ; Hoben et al, 2015 ; Marquardt et al, 2015 ; Kim et al, 2016 ; Tajdaran et al, 2016 ; Yan et al, 2016 ; Cai et al, 2017 ), and a combined HP was used in 12% ( Whitlock et al, 2009 ; Vasudevan et al, 2014 ; Wood et al, 2014 ; Jiang et al, 2016 ). Other studies (6%) used a FTP with or without the addition of chondroitinase ABC as introduced by Krekoski et al (2001 ; Godinho et al, 2013 ; Wang H. et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Most studies ( Liu et al, 2011 ; Wang et al, 2012 ; Zhang and Lv, 2013 ; Gao et al, 2014a ; Vasudevan et al, 2014 ; Wood et al, 2014 ; Zheng et al, 2014 ; Zhou et al, 2014 ; Huang et al, 2015 ; Jiang et al, 2016 ; Kim et al, 2016 ; Wang H. et al, 2016 ; Xiang et al, 2017 ) (39% of the studies included) set week 12 as the last endpoint and a few went beyond the 15th week. For instance, Zhou et al (2014) and Saheb-Al-Zamani et al (2013) evaluated the regenerative process until week 20, Whitlock et al (2009) until week 22, Wakimura et al (2015) , Kusaba et al (2016) , and Wang W. et al (2016) until week 24, and Nagao et al (2011) until week 52.…”

“…In the studies that used the classic decellularization protocols (SP, HP, NP, and FTP), the majority (75.8%) used grafts ranging in length from 10 to 15 mm ( Whitlock et al, 2009 ; Liu et al, 2011 ; Nagao et al, 2011 ; Jia et al, 2012 , 2017 ; Godinho et al, 2013 ; Zhang and Lv, 2013 ; Gao et al, 2014a ; Wood et al, 2014 ; Zhang et al, 2014 ; Zheng et al, 2014 ; Zhou et al, 2014 ; Huang et al, 2015 ; Wakimura et al, 2015 ; Zhu et al, 2015 ; Jiang et al, 2016 ; Kim et al, 2016 ; Kusaba et al, 2016 ; Tajdaran et al, 2016 ; Wang W. et al, 2016 ; Wang et al, 2017b ; Cai et al, 2017 ; Garcia-Pérez et al, 2017 ; Xiang et al, 2017 ). Among the others, only Zhu and Weihua (2014) used a shorter graft (6 mm), while others still used longer grafts: a 20-mm graft in five studies ( Wang et al, 2012 ; Saheb-Al-Zamani et al, 2013 ; Hoben et al, 2015 ; Yan et al, 2016 ; Wang H. et al, 2016 ); a 30-mm graft in two ( Whitlock et al, 2009 ; Marquardt et al, 2015 ); a 35–40 mm graft in two ( Saheb-Al-Zamani et al, 2013 ; Vasudevan et al, 2014 ), and a 60- mm graft in one study ( Saheb-Al-Zamani et al, 2013 ).…”

Repairing peripheral nerve defects with revascularized tissue‐engineered nerve based on a vascular endothelial growth factor‐heparin sustained release system

“…Then, the wet weight was determined by an electronic balance. The wet weight ratio of bilateral gastrocnemius muscle was calculated by comparing the weight of the gastrocnemius muscle on the experimental side to that on the normal side (Gao et al, 2014).…”

Krüppel-like factor 7 attenuates hippocampal neuronal injury after traumatic brain injury

“…In the second animal experiment, all animals were randomly separated into the following three groups (n = 20/group): sham, TBI + AAV-NC (TBI treated with AAV-NC), and TBI + AAV-KLF7 groups (TBI treated with AAV-KLF7). CCI is a commonly used and highly regarded mechanical model of TBI, and the establishment of the CCI model was performed as described previously (Li et al, 2008;Gao et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2017). In brief, mice were anesthetized with an intra-peritoneal administration of 2,2,2-tribromoethanol (2.5%, 0.2 mL/20 g, Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) and placed in a stereotactic frame (Elekta Instruments, Tucker, GA, USA).…”