Development of a nerve scaffold using a tendon chitosan tube.

Bridge grafting (15 mm) into the sciatic nerve of SD rats was carried out using tendon chitosan tubes having either a circular or triangular cross-section, as well as triangular tubes combined with laminin, CDPGYIGSR, or CSRARKQAASIKVAVSAD (n = 15 in each group). As a control, isografting (15 mm) was carried out in the SD rats (n = 7). Specimens were taken after 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks for histology, and nerve regeneration was evaluated electro-physiologically and histologically after 12 weeks. The mechanical strength of triangular tubes was found to be higher than circular tubes, and the inner volume of a triangular tube tends to be larger than in circular tubes. Nerve tissue regeneration along the tube wall was found in both the laminin and laminin peptide groups. According to the result of percentage neural tissue in relation to evoked action potentials, the consecutive treatments of YIGSR and IKVAV was found to match the effectiveness of intact laminin.