In the modern life,the nerve injury frequently happens due to mechanical,chemical or thermal accidents.In the trivial injuries,the peripheral nerves can regenerate on their own;however,in most of the cases the clinica...In the modern life,the nerve injury frequently happens due to mechanical,chemical or thermal accidents.In the trivial injuries,the peripheral nerves can regenerate on their own;however,in most of the cases the clinical treatments are required,where relatively large nerve injury gaps are formed.Currently,the nerve repair can be accomplished by direct suture when the injury gap is not too large;while the autologous nerve graft working as the gold standard of peripheral nerve injury treatment for nerve injuries with larger gaps.However,the direct suture is limited by heavy tension at the suture sites,and the autologous nerve graft also has the drawbacks of donor site morbidity and insufficient donor tissue.Recently,artificial nerve conduits have been developed as an alternative for clinical nerve repair to overcome the limitations associated with the above treatments.In order to further improve the efficiency of nerve conduits,various guidance cues are incorporated,including physical cues,biochemical signals,as well as support cells.First,this paper reviewed the contact guidance cues applied in nerve conduits,such as lumen fillers,multi-channels and micro-patterns on the inner surface.Then,the paper focused on the polymeric nerve conduits with micro inner grooves.The polymeric nerve conduits were fabricated using the phase inversion-based fiber spinning techniques.The smart spinneret with grooved die was designed in the spinning platform,while different spinning conditions,including flow rates,air-gap distances,and polymer concentrations,were adjusted to investigate the influence of fabrication conditions on the geometry of nerve conduits.The inner groove size in the nerve conduits can be precisely controlled in our hollow fiber spinning process,which can work as the efficient contact guidance cue for nerve regeneration.展开更多
基金National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC,No.11402056)the Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology,China(No.14ZR1403300)
文摘In the modern life,the nerve injury frequently happens due to mechanical,chemical or thermal accidents.In the trivial injuries,the peripheral nerves can regenerate on their own;however,in most of the cases the clinical treatments are required,where relatively large nerve injury gaps are formed.Currently,the nerve repair can be accomplished by direct suture when the injury gap is not too large;while the autologous nerve graft working as the gold standard of peripheral nerve injury treatment for nerve injuries with larger gaps.However,the direct suture is limited by heavy tension at the suture sites,and the autologous nerve graft also has the drawbacks of donor site morbidity and insufficient donor tissue.Recently,artificial nerve conduits have been developed as an alternative for clinical nerve repair to overcome the limitations associated with the above treatments.In order to further improve the efficiency of nerve conduits,various guidance cues are incorporated,including physical cues,biochemical signals,as well as support cells.First,this paper reviewed the contact guidance cues applied in nerve conduits,such as lumen fillers,multi-channels and micro-patterns on the inner surface.Then,the paper focused on the polymeric nerve conduits with micro inner grooves.The polymeric nerve conduits were fabricated using the phase inversion-based fiber spinning techniques.The smart spinneret with grooved die was designed in the spinning platform,while different spinning conditions,including flow rates,air-gap distances,and polymer concentrations,were adjusted to investigate the influence of fabrication conditions on the geometry of nerve conduits.The inner groove size in the nerve conduits can be precisely controlled in our hollow fiber spinning process,which can work as the efficient contact guidance cue for nerve regeneration.