AUTHOR=Wu Ping , Zhao Yanan , Chen Feixiang , Xiao Ao , Du Qiaoyue , Dong Qi , Ke Meifang , Liang Xiao , Zhou Qing , Chen Yun 

TITLE=Conductive Hydroxyethyl Cellulose/Soy Protein Isolate/Polyaniline Conduits for Enhancing Peripheral Nerve Regeneration via Electrical Stimulation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2020

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00709

DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2020.00709

ISSN=2296-4185

ABSTRACT=Nerve regeneration remains a challenge to the treatment of peripheral nerve injury. Electrical stimulation (ES) is an assistant treatment to enhance recovery from peripheral nerve injury. A conductive nerve guide conduit was prepared from hydroxyethyl cellulose/soy protein isolate/polyaniline sponge (HSPS) and then the HSPS conduits were used to repair 10 mm sciatic nerve injury in rat model with or without ES, using HSPS+BDNF and autografts as controls. The nerve repairing capacities were evaluated by animal experiments of behavioristics, electrophysiology, toluidine blue staining and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in the regenerated nerve. The results revealed that the nerve regeneration efficiency of HSPS conduits with ES (HSPS+ES) group was the best among the conduits groups but slightly lower than that of autografts group. HSPS+ES group even exhibited notably increased BDNF expression in regenerated nerve tissues, which was also confirmed through in vitro experiments that exogenous BDNF could promote Schwann cells proliferation and MBP protein expression. As a result, this work provided a way to repair nerve defect using conductive HSPS as nerve guide conduit and using ES as an extrinsic physical cue to promote the express of endogenous BDNF.