Peripheral nerve regeneration along collagen filaments.

This paper describes the regeneration of severed peripheral nerve axons along collagen filaments without a tube. Two thousand collagen filaments were grafted to bridge 20 mm defects of rat sciatic nerve. The number of myelinated axons was approximately 4800 in the distal end of the nerve autograft at 8 weeks postoperatively; while in the collagen-filaments nerve guide it was 5500. The results suggested the collagen filaments guided regenerating axons effectively.