Effect of polycaprolactone/collagen/hUCS microfiber nerve conduit on facial nerve regeneration

Nerve conduits have been used to bridge nerve gaps without the donor site morbidity associated with nerve grafting. To fabricate artificial nerve conduits, various biological, synthetic, and natural materials have been applied. In this study, we suggest a new fibrous nerve conduit consisting of PCL microfibers supplemented with collagen and human umbilical cord serum (hUCS). The proposed PCL-based nerve conduit exhibited significantly higher bioactivities in vitro and in vivo, compared to pure PCL and PCL/collagen fibrous conduits. Based on these results, we believe that the PCL/collagen/hUCS fibrous conduit provides more favorable micro-environmental conditions for facial nerve (FN) regeneration and has more therapeutic potential for the regeneration of FN transectional damage than the autograft technique. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.