Tissue-engineered grafts exploit axon-facilitated axon regeneration and pathway protection to enable recovery after 5-cm nerve defects in pigs.

ABSTRACT: Functional restoration following major peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is challenging, given slow axon growth rates and eventual regenerative pathway degradation in the absence of axons. We are developing tissue-engineered nerve grafts (TENGs) to simultaneously "bridge" missing nerve segments and "babysit" regenerative capacity by providing living axons to guide host axons and maintain the distal pathway. TENGs were biofabricated using porcine neurons and "stretch-grown" axon tracts. TENG neurons survived and elicited axon-facilitated axon regeneration to accelerate regrowth across both short (1 cm) and long (5 cm) segmental nerve defects in pigs. TENG axons also closely interacted with host Schwann cells to maintain proregenerative capacity. TENGs drove regeneration across 5-cm defects in b

SUBMITTER: Smith DH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9635828 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature