Target-Specific Nerve Regeneration Through a Nerve Guide in the Rat

Inaccurate projection of rat soleus motoneurons: A comparison of nerve repair techniques

“…Further, it has been suggested that tubilization of a severed nerve may lead to better specificity of innervation than traditional repair techniques. 25 During regenerative processes, axons must make pathway selections at several different levels. For example, at a gross level, axons will preferentially grow toward other nerves rather than tendon or muscle.…”

“…18,19 At a finer level, some studies have shown that selectivity can occur at the nerve trunk and may be due to a neurotropic influence from the distal stump. 22,25 Using a Y-shaped silastic tube, Politis 22 showed that regenerating proximal axons of the tibial and peroneal branches of cat sciatic nerve preferentially innervated that portion of the tube containing the appropriate distal stump, i.e., promimal tibial to distal tibial and proximal peroneal to distal peroneal. Other studies designed to reproduce these results in rats have produced variable results.…”

Collagen-Coated Polylactic-Glycolic Acid (PLGA) Seeded with Neural-Differentiated Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Potential Nerve Conduit

“…The ideal artificial nerve conduit should have certain biochemical and mechanical properties such as biocompatibility, ability to regenerate the nerve along the whole length of the conduit, semi flexibility and easy handling during surgery [3,4]. Furthermore, neurotrophic factors within the artificial nerve conduit help to align the nerve axons during regeneration as compared to the haphazard regeneration in autografts [5]. Polylactic-glycolic acid (PLGA) is one of the top biodegradable synthetic polymers used for tissue engineering due to the ease of controlling its mechanical properties and biodegradation rate [6].…”

The impact of a muscle target organ on nerve grafts with different lengths?A histomorphological analysis

“…As a consequence, the influence of the target muscle probably was not able to compensate this conceivable lack of enhancing neurotrophic factors in the long grafts. [19][20][21] The more likely explanation for this phenomenon is perhaps the more rapid increase of connective tissue inside the perineurium of the long grafts before the regenerating fibers have entered the graft proximally (Figs. 4-6).…”

“…11,12,16 On the other hand there is the influence of the distal target organ. 1,3,15,17,[19][20][21][22] These promoting factors decrease with the increasing length of a nerve graft. Thus, the question concerning our study arises whether long nerve grafts offer adequate conditions for a successful fiber regeneration, the so-called neurotization of a nerve graft, comparable to short grafts.…”