DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPOSITE GUIDE FOR PERIPHERAL NERVE REGENERATION

2022-2-1
Arslantunalı Şahin, Damla
Any injury in peripheral nerves may result in a loss of neuronal communication along sensory and motor nerves, affecting patients’ daily activities. Today, there are various FDA approved commercial conduit materials; hollow tubes preventing them from used in gaps bigger than 10 mm, because they may lead axonal sprouts to form. The presented study includes pHEMA wrapping structure filled with GelMA-HaMA gel matrix as a nerve guidance channel. Following the structural analysis of the nerve guide, in vitro studies were performed with Schwann cells seeded on pHEMA as support cells and it continued with SHSY5Y neuroblastoma cells seeded on the gel matrix. Tensile modulus and tensile strengths of pHEMA hydrogels were determined as 570.9 ± 92.13 and 501.8 ± 93.7 kPa, respectively. Although tensile strengths of the hydrogels were significantly smaller than the acellular nerve tissue, tensile modulus values were comparable to that of an acellular nerve tissue; showing that the conduits would be able to stay intact during nerve regeneration. In addition, 70% of SCs cells seeded were attached and increased their numbers 5 times in 4 weeks; showing the biocompatibility of the surfaces. GelMA-HaMA gel matrix, sacrificial inner part of the conduits, degraded completely in 5 weeks so that the regenerating cells were become able to penetrate the structure. As a result of CSLM studies with SHSY5Y cells, it was shown that neuroblastoma cells were able to attach and grow through the gel matrix with the help of SCs secreting nerve growth factors and Netrin-1 as a guidance.

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Citation Formats
D. Arslantunalı Şahin, “DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPOSITE GUIDE FOR PERIPHERAL NERVE REGENERATION,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2022.