EURON and THEME joint PhD meeting

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EURON and THEME joint meeting 2011
Development of a Nanofibre-Based Tissue Engineering
Strategy to Promote Functional Repair Following
Traumatic Nervous Tissue Injury
Hodde D 1 , Kriebel A 2 , Mey J 2,3 , Klee D 4 ; Möller M 4 ; Weis J 1 , Brook GA 1 .
1 Institute of Neuropathology, RWTH Aachen University Hospital, Germany; 2 Institute of Biologie II, RWTH
Aachen, Germany; 3 National Hospital of Paraplegia, SESCAM, Toledo, Spain; 4 DWI e.V. and Institute of
Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry, RWTH Aachen, Germany.
Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) causes an immediate loss of function. Simple
transection injuries can be surgically repaired with tensionless sutures. However,
the presence of a larger gap within the lesioned nerve requires the interposition
of a bridging substrate or conduit. The current “gold standard” treatment for the
repair of such gaps in lesioned peripheral nerve is the autologous nerve graft
which has significant limitations. Therefore, alternative strategies to replace or
at least supplement the autograft are desired. The goal of the present project is
to develop a biomimetic nanofibre-based implantable scaffold that will induce
Schwann cell migration and axonal regeneration to promote functional repair
after PNI. Using the electrospinning technique we have generated simple two
dimensional (2D) arrays of highly aligned poly-caprolactone (PCL) nanofibres that
allow the investigation of single cell-single fibre interactions in vitro. By adapting
the recently published methodology of Yang et al. (2011), the 2D arrays of highly
aligned nanofibres have been collected and stacked onto each other resulting in
a three dimensional (3D) configuration of layered nanofibres that are suspended
in air. These 3D arrays appear to be remarkably stable, even when infused with
a number of different hydrogels (i.e. gelatine, fibrin and the Puramatrix self
assembling nanofibre hydrogel). Infusion with these hydrogels resulted in no
disruption of the layered architecture, nor of the orientation of the nanofibres.
Cell-substrate interactions in simple 2D in vitro investigations have demonstrated
the powerful orientating influence of such nanofibres on Schwann cell growth,
process formation and length of extension. Ongoing investigations are focussing
on Schwann cell-nanofibre interactions in the present 3D arrays. Such nanofibrebased
devices represent a significant advance in the field of tissue engineering
and, if demonstrated to be effective in controlling and directing glial and axonal
growth in vitro, will be used for future implantation experiments as nerve bridges
in vivo.