Tissue engineering applications for peripheral nerve repair

Abstract

Peripheral nerve injuries lead to variable levels of functional loss depending on the extent of the injury. Despite the modern treatment methods, peripheral nerve regeneration is still a time-consuming process mainly because of the limited regeneration capacity of the nervous system. Unfortunately, attempts to increase the regeneration potential of the peripheral nervous system yielded a limited improvement. However, Tissue engineering emerged as a more promising tool to ease the traditionally laborious process of peripheral nerve regeneration. A tissue-engineered nerve is a combination of a biodegradable scaffold, a neurogenic cell line, and growth factors. The main focus of current research is to improve the cell-scaffold and scaffold-tissue interactions. Engineering a fully biocompatible and natural nerve-like nerve segment should be possible in the future with the improved understanding of biological mechanisms of nerve healing. This chapter provides a detailed look into the components of tissue-engineered nerve grafts along with a review of clinically relevant studies.