A New Preparation Method for Anisotropic Silk Fibroin Nerve Guidance Conduits and Its Evaluation In Vitro and in a Rat Sciatic Nerve Defect Model.

ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, silk fibroin (SF) has been emergently used in peripheral nerve tissue engineering. Current approaches aiming at producing SF-based nerve guidance conduits (SF-NGCs) used dissolved silk based on either aqueous solutions or organic solvents. In this study, we describe a novel procedure to produce SF-NGCs: A braided tubular structure of raw Bombyx mori silk is subsequently processed with the ternary solvent CaCl2/H2O/ethanol, formic acid, and methanol to improve its mechanical and topographical characteristics. Topographically, the combination of the treatments results in a fusion of the outer single silk fibers to a closed layer with a thickness ranging from about 40 to 75 μm. In contrast to the outer wall, the inner lumen (not treated with processing solvents) still re

SUBMITTER: Teuschl AH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4553371 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature