Abstract
Nerve growth conduits are designed to support and promote axon regeneration following nerve injuries. Multifunctionalized conduits with combined physical and chemical cues, are a promising avenue aimed at overcoming current therapeutic barriers. However, the efficacious assembly of conduits that promote neuronal growth remains a challenge. Here, a biomimetic regenerative gel is developed, that integrates physical and chemical cues in a biocompatible “one pot reaction” strategy. The collagen gel is enriched with magnetic nanoparticles coated with nerve growth factor (NGF). Then, through a remote magnetic actuation, highly aligned fibrillar gel structure embedded with anisotropically distributed coated nanoparticles, combining multiple regenerating strategies, is obtained. The effects of the multifunctional gels are examined in vitro, and in vivo in a 10-mm rat sciatic nerve injury model. The magneto-based therapeutic conduits demonstrate oriented and directed axonal growth, and improve nerve regeneration in vivo. The study of multifunctional guidance scaffolds that can be implemented efficiently and remotely provides the foundation to a novel therapeutic approach to overcome current medical obstacles for nerve injuries.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2010837 |
| Journal | Advanced Functional Materials |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 29 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 16 Jul 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH.
Funding
M.A.‐P. and J.G. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by the Israeli Chief Scientist Office Kamin program #59041. The authors thank Oshra Betzer for assistance with the CT analysis, Chen Tzror for assistance with DLS measurements and Lior Shani for assistance with SQUID measurements, Nadav Noor for assistance with rheometric measurements, and Ziv Shemesh for confocal measurements. The authors would like to thank Noa Alon for the schematic representation and advice in producing the figures. The authors would like to thank Anat Sakov from DataSights for her biostatistics guidance and advice. The authors would like to acknowledge Yakov Langsam, Moshit Ben‐Ishai, Ayelet Atkins, and Melina Zysler from Bar Ilan institute of Nanotechnology and advanced materials for assistance with TEM and SEM imaging. The authors would like to thank Yael Friedmann from the Bio‐Imaging Facility from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the TEM images of extracted conduits. M.A.-P. and J.G. contributed equally to this work. This work was supported by the Israeli Chief Scientist Office Kamin program #59041. The authors thank Oshra Betzer for assistance with the CT analysis, Chen Tzror for assistance with DLS measurements and Lior Shani for assistance with SQUID measurements, Nadav Noor for assistance with rheometric measurements, and Ziv Shemesh for confocal measurements. The authors would like to thank Noa Alon for the schematic representation and advice in producing the figures. The authors would like to thank Anat Sakov from DataSights for her biostatistics guidance and advice. The authors would like to acknowledge Yakov Langsam, Moshit Ben-Ishai, Ayelet Atkins, and Melina Zysler from Bar Ilan institute of Nanotechnology and advanced materials for assistance with TEM and SEM imaging. The authors would like to thank Yael Friedmann from the Bio-Imaging Facility from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for the TEM images of extracted conduits.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Bar Ilan institute of Nanotechnology | |
| Israeli Chief Scientist Office | 59041 |
Keywords
- collagen
- gels
- magnetic nanoparticles
- peripheral nerve repair