Efect of longitudinally oriented collagen conduit combined with nerve growth factor on nerve regeneration after dog sciatic nerve injury

The research on artificial nerve conduits has become a focus of study in peripheral nerve reconstruction so as a possible replacement for the treatment of autologous nerve grafts in clinics. In this study, we used longitudinally oriented collagen conduit (LOCC) combined with nerve growth factor (NGF) to reconstruct long distance of sciatic nerve defects (35 mm) in adult dog model. The long term follow-up evaluation demonstrated that the LOCC/NGF conduit allowed functional and morphological nerve regeneration at the transection site of the injured sciatic nerve. Furthermore, the functional study confirmed that when NGF was loaded onto LOCC it promoted a better recovery of regenerated axons than LOCC alone. The gastrocnemius muscle mass in the LOCC/NGF group was significantly greater than in the LOCC alone group. The results indicated that when LOCC conduit combined with NGF it would provide a preferential environment for sciatic nerve regeneration. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 2131-2139, 2018.