Dog sciatic nerve gap repaired by artificial tissue nerve graft *

The feasibility of repairing dog sciatic nerve damage by using a biodegradable artificial tissue nerve graft enriched with neuroregenerating factors is investigated. The artificial nerve graft was implanted to a 30 mm gap of the sciatic nerve damage in 7 dogs. The dogs with the same nerve damage that were repaired by interposition of the autologous nerve or were given no treatment served as control group 1 or 2, respectively. The observations include gross and morphological observations, immune reaction, electrophysiological examination, fluorescence tracing of the neuron formation and the number of the neurons at the experimental sites, etc. Results showed that 6 months after the implantation of the graft, the regenerated nerve repaired the damage of the sciatic nerve without occurrence of rejection and obvious inflammatory reaction in all 7 dogs, and the function of the sciatic nerve recovered with the nerve conduction velocity of (23.91 ± 11.35)m/s. The regenerated neurons and the forming of axon could be observed under an electron microscope. This proves that artificial tissue nerve graft transplantation can bridge the damaged nerve ends and promote the nerve regeneration.