Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
Neuroscience Institute Cavalieri Ottolenghi, University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
Biomed Res Int. 2018 Jun 13;2018:9175248. doi: 10.1155/2018/9175248. eCollection 2018.
Muscle-in-vein conduit is successfully employed for repairing nerve injuries: the vein prevents muscle fiber dispersion, while the muscle prevents the vein collapse and creates a favorable environment for Schwann cell migration and axon regrowth. However, it requires microsurgical skills. In this study we show a simple strategy to improve the performance of a chitosan hollow tube by the introduction of fresh skeletal muscle fibers. The hypothesis is to overcome the technical issue of the muscle-in-vein preparation and to take advantage of fiber muscle properties to create an easy and effective conduit for nerve regeneration. Rat median nerve gaps were repaired with chitosan tubes filled with skeletal muscle fibers (muscle-in-tube graft), hollow chitosan tubes, or autologous nerve grafts. Our results demonstrate that the fresh skeletal muscle inside the conduit is an endogenous source of soluble Neuregulin 1, a key factor for Schwann cell survival and dedifferentiation, absent in the hollow tube during the early phase of regeneration. However, nerve regeneration assessed at late time point was similar to that obtained with the hollow tube. To conclude, the muscle-in-tube graft is surgically easy to perform and we suggest that it might be a promising strategy to repair longer nerve gap or for secondary nerve repair, situations in which Schwann cell atrophy is a limiting factor for recovery.
静脉可防止肌纤维分散，而肌肉可防止静脉塌陷，并为施万细胞迁移和轴突再生创造有利环境。但是，它需要显微外科技术。在这项研究中，我们展示了一种通过引入新鲜骨骼肌纤维来改善壳聚糖空心管性能的简单策略。假设是克服静脉内肌制备的技术问题，并利用纤维肌肉特性为神经再生创建一种简单有效的导管。大鼠正中神经间隙用填充有骨骼肌纤维的壳聚糖管（肌内管移植物）、中空壳聚糖管或自体神经移植物修复。我们的结果表明，导管内的新鲜骨骼肌是可溶性神经调节蛋白 1 的内源性来源，这是施万细胞存活和去分化的关键因素，在再生的早期阶段，中空管中不存在这种物质。然而，在晚期评估的神经再生与中空管获得的结果相似。总之，肌内管移植物手术操作简单，我们认为它可能是修复较长神经间隙或用于二次神经修复的有前途的策略，在这些情况下，施万细胞萎缩是恢复的限制因素。
