Natural and Synthetic Materials Combined to Repair Severed Nerves

在服装行业中,通常将天然和合成纤维混合。取棉,然后加聚酯制作柔软,透气和无皱纹的衣服。

Now researchers at theUniversity of Washingtonare using the same principle for biomedical applications. Mixing chitosan, found in the shells of crabs and shrimp, with an industrial polyester creates a promising new material for the tiny tubes that support repair of a severed nerve, and could serve other medical uses. The hybrid fiber combines the biologically favorable qualities of the natural material with the mechanical strength of the synthetic polymer.

UW材料科学和工程学教授Miqin Zhang说:“神经指南需要非常严格的条件。它必须具有生物相容性,溶液稳定,耐药性和柔韧性,以便外科医生可以将其缝合到神经上。”欧洲杯线上买球一篇论文的主要作者现已在《高级材料》杂志上在线获得。欧洲杯足球竞彩“事实证明这非常困难。”

在损伤断裂外周神经(例如手指中的一个)后,神经末端继续增长。但是要重新控制神经外科医生必须加入两个碎片。对于大差距外科医生,用于尝试更困难的神经移植。当前的手术实践是连接小管,称为神经指南,将两个碎片彼此引导。

Today's commercial nerve guides are made from collagen, a structural protein derived from animal cells. But collagen is expensive, the protein tends to trigger an immune response and the material is weak in wet environments, such as those inside the body.

神经向导的强度对于萌芽的神经细胞很重要。

张说:“该导管是保护神经元免受伤害的指南。”“如果管是由胶原蛋白制成的,则很难保持管道打开,因为任何压力都会崩溃。”

Zhang and colleagues developed an alternative. The first component of their material, polycaprolactone, is a strong, flexible, biodegradable polyester commonly used in sutures. It is not suitable on its own for use as a nerve guide because water-based cells don't like to grow on the polyester's water-repelling surface.

第二个成分壳聚糖是在甲壳类动物的壳中发现的。它便宜,容易获得,可生物降解且可生物相容性,这意味着它不会触发免疫反应。壳聚糖的粗糙表面与细胞可以附着的体内发现的表面相似。问题是壳聚糖在水中膨胀,使其在潮湿的环境中变得薄弱。

Researchers combined the fibers at the nanometer scale by first using a technique called electrospinning to draw the materials into nanometer-scale fibers, and then weaving the fibers together. The resulting material has a texture similar to that of the nanosized fibers of the connective tissue that surrrounds human cells.

两种材料不同,很欧洲杯足球竞彩难混合,但是正确混合至关重要,因为不完美混合的纤维具有弱点。

Zhang and colleagues built prototype nerve guides measuring 1.5 millimeters (0.06 inches) in diameter, and between five and 15 centimeters (two to six inches) long. They tested a guide made from the chitosan-polyester blend against another biomaterial under study, polylacticcoglycolic acid, and a commercially available collagen guide.

在这三种材料中,壳聚糖 -欧洲杯足球竞彩 酸盐编织表现出在干燥和潮湿条件下的强度,柔韧性和抵抗力的最一致性。在潮湿的条件下,研究人员说,最佳模仿体内的条件下,壳聚糖 - 聚酯混合物需要两倍的力才能将管子闭合的中途将管道闭合,而其构成了另一个生物材料,而力是胶原管的八倍。

The new material showed promise for nerve guides but would also work well for wound dressings, heart grafts, tendons, ligament, cartilage, muscle repair and other biomedical applications, Zhang said.

这项研究是由国家科学基金会通过向西澳大学工程生物材料研究中心提供的赠款来资助的。欧洲杯线上买球欧洲杯足球竞彩纸上的合着者是理查德·埃伦伯格(Richard Ellenbogen),纳拉扬·巴塔莱(Narayan Bhattarai),Zhensheng Li,Jonathan Gunn,Matthew Leung,Matthew Leung,Ashleigh Cooper,Dennis Edmonson和UW的Omid Veiseh;台湾国家阳明大学的明龙;和新加坡国立大学的杨张。

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