Encouraging nerve recovery

Researchers at Glasgow University are hoping to use tiny fabricated tubes to help damaged nerves heal themselves.

The scientists, at the university’s Centre for Cell Engineering and Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, will manufacture tiny polymer tubes with internal microscale patterns that they hope will help guide severed peripheral nerve cells back together.

If successful, the tubes could greatly improve sensitivity and functionality in patients who have suffered peripheral nerve injury, which affects 500,000 people annually in Europe and can result in profound long-term disabilities.

Andrew Hart, a plastic surgeon at the Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit in the Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Molecular and Cellular Biology, is leading the four-year project with Dr Mathis Riehle of the Centre for Cell Engineering.

He said: 'While surgeons can very elegantly sew nerves back together, the outcomes are very poor when it comes to restoring functionality. We hope to develop a better way of connecting nerves to ensure that nerve regeneration is encouraged and so improve the chances of a better outcome.'