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Hindi Review Article
Biomimetic Single and Multi-Lumen Bilayer Design of Electroconductive Nerve Grafts for Neuroengineering
Cameron H Menzies1, Antonio Lauto2, Lloyd Mirto2, Ben Van Gogh1, Andrew Ruys1, Sri Bandyopadhyay3, Paul Carter4 and Philip Boughton1*
1Biomedical Engineering, AMME School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2Medical Science SoSH, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia
3School of Materials Science & Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
4Cochlear Pty Ltd, Sydney Australia
- Corresponding Author:
- Cameron H Menzies
The University of Sydney, Australia
E-mail: cmen7987@uni.sydney.edu.au
Received date June 03, 2013; Accepted date July 14, 2013; Published date July 20, 2013
Citation: Menzies CH, Boughton P, Lauto A, Mirto L, Bandyopadhyay S (2013) Biomimetic Single and Multi-Lumen Bilayer Design of Electroconductive Nerve Grafts for Neuroengineering. J Biomim Biomater Tissue Eng 18:105. doi: 10.4172/1662-100X.1000105
Copyright: © 2013 Menzies CH, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
A versatile nerve graft was developed for use in peripheral nerve regeneration. Existing techniques such as autography require additional surgery, while current synthetic nerve grafts are only capable of facilitating neuroregeneration across small lesions (<5 mm). Electroconductive polymers, hydrogel and composite systems were reviewed, to help develop a biomaterials basis for the design. A novel configuration for an electroconductive nerve scaffold has been proposed, incorporating an insulated multi-lumen design for re-connecting larger nerve gaps. A single open-lumen conduit and a more advanced multi-channel design with insulating sheaths were fabricated in order to mimic the fascicular architecture seen in peripheral nerves. The scaffold employed a synthetic biomaterial composite of polycaprolactone matrix filled with functionalised Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes (f-MWCNTs). The composite suspension was electrospun under the influence of 5kV electric field. 80mm single and multi-lumen scaffolds were formed that were then capable of being securely sutured to kangaroo tail spinal cord without tearing. The scaffolds were tension tested and found to have a Young’s Modulus of 15.7 MPa ± 2.98 (p=0.95), and a tensile strength of 1.172 MPa ± 0.16 (p=0.95) and 1.375 MPa ± 0.08 (p=0.95) for the single and multi-channel grafts respectively. A preliminary neurotoxicity study using N2A cell-line showed strong cell-scaffold adhesion and viability.
