Nanotechnology in peripheral nerve repair and reconstruction

Abstract

The recent progress in biomaterials science and development of tubular conduits (TCs) still fails in solving the current challenges in the treatment of peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs), in particular when disease-related and long-gap defects need to be addressed.Nanotechnology-based therapies that seemed unreachable in the past are now being considered for the repair and reconstruction of PNIs, having the power to deliver bioactive molecules in a controlled manner, to tune cellular behavior, and ultimately guide tissue regeneration in an effective manner. It also offers opportunities in the imaging field, with a degree of precision never achieved before, which is useful for diagnosis, surgery and in the patient's follow-up. Nanotechnology approaches applied in PNI regeneration and theranostics, emphasizing the ones that are moving from the lab bench to the clinics, are herein overviewed.

Customized Scaffold Design Based on Natural Peripheral Nerve Fascicle Characteristics for Biofabrication in Tissue Regeneration

“…In the future, nerve graft design should reflect this microstructure information, design matching nerve fascicle microstructure characteristics of biomimetic repair nerve grafts, and achieve nerve gross morphology matching, nerve branch matching, and three-dimensional spatial pattern matching of nerve fascicles morphology. Tissue engineering customized nerve grafts can be a new solution to repair nerve defects in the future [35][36][37]. e limitations of this study are mainly due to the existing experimental conditions and the small human nerve Figure 6: e establishment of the database of peripheral nerve microstructure and its application to design a biofabrication nerve graft model according to the morphological characteristics of the nerve bundle.…”

Conductive Biomaterials as Substrates for Neural Stem Cells Differentiation towards Neuronal Lineage Cells

“…Among them, conductive nanomaterials with good topography are useful artificial nerve graft for nerve repair when used alone or in conjugation with biomolecules. [ 39 ] As mentioned earlier, many researchers have focused on using hydrogels for treatment of CNS. However, the conventional hydrogels with micron‐size were unable to cross the BBB and thus had limited therapeutic efficacy.…”

Electrospinning Multilayered Scaffolds Loaded with Melatonin and Fe3O4 Magnetic Nanoparticles for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

“…In addition, nanomaterials are considered as a potential strategy to promote the peripheral nerve regeneration due to their exceptional size, surface functionalization, and chemical stability, along with their electrical, magnetic, and optical properties. [ 12 ] Among them, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are frequently investigated for the magnetic and electrical property and biological activities. [ 13 ] Iron oxide nanoparticles such as magnetite (e.g., Fe 3 O 4 ) and maghemite (e.g., γ‐Fe 2 O 3 ) with certain superparamagnetic properties have been reported to induce axonal extension or direct neurite outgrowth under an external magnetic field without any side effects.…”

“…[ 15 ] More importantly, previous research has also proved that the nanoparticles can be exploited to increase mechanical properties of NGCs. [ 12a ]…”