A BIOMIMETIC BIOSYNTHETIC NERVE IMPLANT

摘要

A biomimetic biosynthetic nerve implant (BNI) that uses a hydrogel-based, transparent, multi-channel matrix as a 3-D substrate for nerve repair is disclosed. Novel scaffold-casting devices were designed for reproducible fabrication of grafts containing several micro-conduits, and further tested in vivo using a sciatic nerve animal model. At 10-12 weeks post-injury, nerve defects repaired with empty tubes formed a single nerve cable. In sharp contrast, animals that received the multi-luminal BNI showed multiple nerve cables within the available micro-channels, better resembling the multi-fascicular anatomy and ultra structure of the normal nerve.