Volume 106, Issue 4 pp. 1463-1476
Original Research Report

Sciatic nerve regeneration by transplantation of Schwann cells via erythropoietin controlled-releasing polylactic acid/multiwalled carbon nanotubes/gelatin nanofibrils neural guidance conduit

Majid Salehi

Majid Salehi

Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417755469 Iran

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Mahdi Naseri-Nosar

Mahdi Naseri-Nosar

Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417755469 Iran

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Somayeh Ebrahimi-Barough

Somayeh Ebrahimi-Barough

Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417755469 Iran

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Mohammdreza Nourani

Mohammdreza Nourani

Nano Biotechnology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1435944711 Iran

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Arash Khojasteh

Arash Khojasteh

Department of Tissue Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

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Amir-Ali Hamidieh

Amir-Ali Hamidieh

Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1411713135 Iran

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Amir Amani

Amir Amani

Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417755469 Iran

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Saeed Farzamfar

Saeed Farzamfar

Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417755469 Iran

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Jafar Ai

Corresponding Author

Jafar Ai

Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, 1417755469 Iran

Correspondence to: J. Ai; e-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 04 July 2017
Citations: 79

This article was published online on 04 July 2017. An error was subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected 21 July 2017.

Abstract

The current study aimed to enhance the efficacy of peripheral nerve regeneration using an electrically conductive biodegradable porous neural guidance conduit for transplantation of allogeneic Schwann cells (SCs). The conduit was produced from polylactic acid (PLA), multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), and gelatin nanofibrils (GNFs) coated with the recombinant human erythropoietin-loaded chitosan nanoparticles (rhEpo-CNPs). The PLA/MWCNTs/GNFs/rhEpo-CNPs conduit had the porosity of 85.78 ± 0.70%, the contact angle of 77.65 ± 1.91° and the ultimate tensile strength and compressive modulus of 5.51 ± 0.13 MPa and 2.66 ± 0.34 MPa, respectively. The conduit showed the electrical conductivity of 0.32 S cm−1 and lost about 11% of its weight after 60 days in normal saline. The produced conduit was able to release the rhEpo for at least 2 weeks and exhibited favorable cytocompatibility towards SCs. For functional analysis, the conduit was seeded with 1.5 × 104 SCs and implanted into a 10 mm sciatic nerve defect of Wistar rat. After 14 weeks, the results of sciatic functional index, hot plate latency, compound muscle action potential amplitude, weight-loss percentage of wet gastrocnemius muscle and Histopathological examination using hematoxylin-eosin and Luxol fast blue staining demonstrated that the produced conduit had comparable nerve regeneration to the autograft, as the gold standard to bridge the nerve gaps. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1463–1476, 2018.

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