PRESERVATION OF PERIPHERAL-NERVE GRAFTS WITH SCHWANN-CELL CULTURE-MEDIUM

Preservation of peripheral nerves may, in the near future, play an imp ortant role in reconstructive surgery, especially if recent advances i n immunosuppressive therapy are taken into account. Therefore, it has to be investigated whether peripheral nerves can be stored for some ti me after harvesting without diminishing their regenerative potential. Previous experiments of our group could demonstrate only little benefi t of organ storage solution (HTK) or normal saline (NaCl 0.9%) to peri pheral nerves when kept at cold ischaemia of 4-degrees-C for 32 and 72 hours. In this presentation, we are reporting the results of peripher al nerve storage in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium which has been us ed for Schwann cell culture. In 30 adult Sprague-Dawley rats, a 2.5 cm segment of the right sciatic nerve was harvested and kept at 4-degree s-C for 14, 32. 72, and 120 hours. It was then reimplanted into the do nor animal; regeneration quality was assessed clinically, histological ly and morphometrically after 6 weeks. Best regeneration results were obtained in the 32 and 72 hour groups; regeneration here was comparabl e to the normal controls. These results are explained with the positiv e effect of nerve predegeneration. (C) 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.