Research could assist patients suffering from nerve trauma
Building a tunnel made of hard and soft materials to guide the reconnection of severed nerve endings may be the first step toward helping patients regain feeling and movement.
This is the claim of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) researchers who have published their results in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
According to Penn State, spontaneous nerve regeneration is limited to small lesions within the injured peripheral nerve system and is actively suppressed within the central nervous system.
When a nerve in the peripheral nervous system is cut slightly, nerve endings can regenerate and reconnect. However, if the distance between the two endings is too far, the growth can go off course and fail to connect.
The researchers are said to have developed a novel hybrid conduit that consisted of a hydrogel as an external wall along with an internal wall made of an electrically active conducting polymer to serve as a tunnel that guides the regrowth and reconnection of the severed nerve endings.
Mohammad Reza Abidian, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Penn State, said that the method could offer advantages over current surgeries that are used to reconnect severed nerves.
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