G. Ozcan et al., VASCULARIZED NERVE TUBE - AN EXPERIMENTAL ALTERNATIVE FOR VASCULARIZED NERVE GRAFTS OVER SHORT GAPS, Journal of reconstructive microsurgery, 9(6), 1993, pp. 405-413
Multilayered tubes fabricated from human amnion were placed subcutaneo
usly and/or longitudinally in contact with an axial artery and vein in
rats. Histologic evaluation at the third postoperative week showed th
at the tubes had incorporated with the surrounding fibrovascular tissu
e. New capillary formation within the tube wall was well demonstrated
by microangiography Vascularized amnion tubes were then used to bridge
a 1-cm-long femoral nerve gap in an artificially-created, relatively
avascular bed in rats. An avascular bed was created by wrapping the co
rresponding nerve segment with a thin silicone sheet. After 3 months,
nerve regeneration was assessed using morphometric analysis. The vascu
larized amnion conduits showed comparable nerve regeneration to vascul
arized nerve grafts (p > 0.05), and superior nerve regeneration when c
ompared to nonvascularized amnion conduits and nonvascularized nerve g
rafts as well (p < 0.05). This suggests that, in the rat model, a cond
uit can be neovascularized and used as a prefabricated tissue, to brid
ge short nerve gaps in a compromised bed.