[The preparation and evaluation of tissue inducible nerve guide conduit]

The objective of this research was to fabricate a novel tissue inducible nerve guide conduit, and to evaluate its biologic property. The microspheres were prepared with chitosan that encapsulated ligustrazine. The drug release of the chitosan microspheres was detected with application of the controlled release method in vitro. Chitosan microspheres were mixed with collagen to fabricate the tissue inducible nerve conduit, which were crosslinked with 2% genipin for 24h. Mechanical properties of the nerve guide conduit samples, including maximum load and breaking load, were measured using an Instron Series IX Automated Materials Testing System. The flexibility of the nerve guide conduit was determined with the texture evaluation instrument. Different methods, such as scanning electron microscope (SEM), light microscope (LMS) and immunofluorescence were used to analyze the spatial structure of the nerve guide conduit, the distribution of the microspheres, the state of the nerve duct combined with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), and the effect of the ligustrazine that released from chitosan microsphere on MSCs differentiation into nerve cells, respectively. The results showed that the chitosan microspheres had better releasing effect. The mechanical properties resultant nerve guide conduit were determined. The maximum load and breaking load of the genipin crosslinked samples were significantly higher than that observed with the non-crosslinkers, increasing to (0.76 +/- 0.15) N and (0.69 +/- 0.17) N from (0.23 +/- 0.09) N and (0.20 +/- 0.12) N for the non-crosslinkers (P < 0.01). The degradation rates of non-crosslinked and crosslinked by genipin were(58.62 +/- 7.59) mg and (9.23 +/- 2.47) mg, respec- tively. This had a statistical significance (P < 0.01). The average linearities in dry and hygrometric state of the nerve guide conduit were (0.597 +/- 0.012) LC and (0.333 +/- 0.015) LC, respectively, which also had statistical significance (P < 0.01). The flexibility in the hygrometric state of the nerve guide conduit was better than that of the dry. SEM analysis of the samples demonstrated that the structures of the nerve guide conduit were significantly changed in crosslinking samples, the microspheres were uniformly distributed on the surface of scaffold, the ligustrazine that released from the chitosan microspheres could promote MSCs to express NSE and MAP2 that were the relevant marker molecule of nerve cells. The nerve guide conduit is combined with MSCs, which promote MSCs proliferation and NSE expression by the ligustrazine that released from the chitosan microspheres. The conduit has better biological compatibility and tissue inducible function.