State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology and MOE Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study, Model Animal Research Center, Nanjing Biomedical Research Institute, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Ministry of Education and Jiangsu Province, Co-innovation Center of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, Nantong, JS, PR China.
J Tissue Eng Regen Med. 2018 Feb;12(2):e1143-e1153. doi: 10.1002/term.2449. Epub 2017 Aug 2.
Silk fibroin (SF)-derived silkworms represent a type of highly biocompatible biomaterial for tissue engineering. We have previously investigated biocompatibility of SF with neural cells isolated from the central nervous system or peripheral nerve system in vitro, and also developed a SF-based nerve graft conduit or tissue-engineered nerve grafts by introducing bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells, as support cells, into SF-based scaffold and evaluated the outcomes of peripheral nerve repair in a rat model. As an extension of the previous study, the electrospun technique was performed here to fabricate SF-based neural scaffold inserted with silk fibres for bridging a 30-mm-long sciatic nerve gap in dogs. Assessments including functional, histological and morphometrical analyses were applied 12 months after surgery. All the results indicated that the SF-based neural scaffold group achieved satisfactory regenerative outcomes, which were close to those achieved by autologous nerve grafts as the golden-standard for peripheral nerve repair. Overall, our results raise a potential possibility for the translation of SF-based electrospun neural scaffolds as an alternative to nerve autografts into the clinic.
丝素（SF）衍生的家蚕代表了一种高度生物相容的组织工程生物材料。我们之前已经研究了 SF 与中枢神经系统或外周神经系统分离的神经细胞的体外生物相容性，并且还通过将骨髓间充质干细胞作为支持细胞引入 SF 支架中，开发了基于 SF 的神经移植物导管或组织工程神经移植物，并在大鼠模型中评估了周围神经修复的结果。作为先前研究的延伸，这里采用静电纺丝技术来制造插入丝纤维的 SF 基神经支架，以桥接狗的 30mm 长坐骨神经间隙。手术后 12 个月进行了包括功能、组织学和形态计量学分析在内的评估。所有结果均表明，SF 基神经支架组获得了令人满意的再生结果，与作为周围神经修复金标准的自体神经移植物相当。总体而言，我们的结果为 SF 基静电纺丝神经支架作为神经自体移植物的替代品转化为临床应用提供了潜在的可能性。
