Bridging a 30-mm nerve defect using collagen filaments

This article describes a 30-mm regeneration of severed peripheral nerve axons along collagen filaments. Two thousand or 4000 31-mm-long collagen filaments were grafted to bridge a 30-mm defect of the rat sciatic nerve. A collagen tube was grafted as a control. The mean number and mean fiber diameter of regenerated myelinated axons were 330 +/- 227 and 2.7 +/- 0.9 mum in the distal end of the 2000 collagen-filaments nerve guide, and 564 +/- 275 and 2.5 +/- 1.1 mum in the distal end of the 4000 collagen-filaments, nerve guide at 12 weeks postoperatively, whereas in the distal end of the collagen tube, no regenerated axon was found. These results suggest that the collagen filaments guide axons of the rat's sciatic nerve to regenerate for 30 mm and act as a scaffold for axonal regeneration. Thirty-millimeter nerve regeneration of a 1-mm-diameter rat sciatic nerve by an artificial nerve guarantees a clinical application of the implant which should be very important for patients and surgeons. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.