A Novel Approach to Facilitate Peripheral Nerve Regeneration: An Electrospun Conduit, Hydrogel Filling, and Internal Microchannels

Though peripheral nerve injuries are common and can have a detrimental effect on an individual's quality of life, current methods of treating these injuries have limited efficacy. Nerve guidance conduit (NGC) devices seek to solve these issues, but current NGCs are hollow tubes that lack sufficient guidance for growing axons. Thus, this study aimed to improve current NGCs. E1001(1k) was electrospun onto a mandrel, forming a conduit that was amorphous with fibers mostly 1.5-5 μm in diameter; thus, the conduit was biodegradable, porous, strong, and flexible. The conduit was infused with a collagen hydrogel and 250 μm metal wires were inserted to make 219 μm microchannels in the hydrogel. This study demonstrates an electrospinning procedure able to create NGCs of varied fiber architecture and diameter, which greatly influence the conduit's performance in the body, and a metal wire technique that produces internal microchannels, a crucial feature for successful nerve regeneration.