THE ROLE OF MACROPHAGES IN BIOARTIFICIAL NERVE GRAFTS BASED ON RESORBABLE GUIDING FILAMENT STRUCTURES

A 10 mm gap in a rat sciatic nerve was bridged by a bioartificial nerv e graft consisting of a silicone tube containing seven longitudinally placed filaments made of non-resorbable material (polyamide [Ethilon(R )]) or resorbable materials (polydioxanon [PDS(R)], polyglactin [Vicry l(R)] or catgut). The purpose was to study the-tissue reaction induced by the four different types of materials. At 4 weeks an immunocytoche mical technique, using ED1 and ED2 monoclonal antibodies, was used to study the presence and location of macrophages. A large number of macr ophages were found accumulating on the surface of catgut and polyglact in, while few were found on the surface of polyamide and polydioxanon filaments. It is concluded that the cell layers on the filament surfac e mainly consisted of ED1 positive cells and their thickness depends o n the filament materials.