“…Due to its biomechanical properties, ES protects and facilitates axonal regeneration, and thus was previously used in peripheral nerve repair as a conduit or sleeve in the rat and rabbit models (Ayhan, Markal, Siemionow, Araneo, & Siemionow, 2003;Ayhan, Yavuzer, Latifo glu, & Atabay, 2000;FIGURE 4 Comparison of the maximal nerve conduction velocity-NCV (A) and somatosensory evoked potentials-SSEP (B) results between autograft controls (group 2, n = 4 nerves/group) and epineural sheath conduit (group 3, n = 4 nerves/group) at 6 months after sheep median nerve repair FIGURE 5 Representative images of toluidine blue staining of a distal segment of autograft controls (panel A) and epineural sheath conduit (panel B) at 6 months after sheep median nerve repair confirmed presence of myelinated axons Demirkan, Snyder, Latifoglu, & Siemionow, 1995;Karacaoglu, Yüksel, Peker, & Güler, 2001). Compared to other naturally occurring biomaterials, such as vein (Bueno et al, 2017;Nijhuis et al, 2013), artery (Itoh et al, 1996), muscle (Battiston, Tos, Conforti, & Geuna, 2007;Nijhuis et al, 2013), or bone (IJpma, Van De Graaf, & Meek, 2008), ES is the only material of the neural origin. This represents a potential advantage of the ESC over other natural and synthetic conduits, due to a high laminin expression (Siemionow et al, 2011), which provides neuropermissive microenvironment and facilitates Schwann cell attachment and axonal regeneration (Siemionow & Brzezicki, 2009;Siemionow, Bozkurt, & Zor, 2010).…”