A hydrogel that could help repair damaged nerves

Date:
October 7, 2020
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Injuries to peripheral nerves -- tissues that transmit bioelectrical
signals from the brain to the rest of the body -- often result in
chronic pain, neurologic disorders, paralysis or disability. Now,
researchers have developed a stretchable conductive hydrogel
that could someday be used to repair these types of nerves when
there's damage.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Injuries to peripheral nerves -- tissues that transmit bioelectrical
signals from the brain to the rest of the body -- often result in chronic
pain, neurologic disorders, paralysis or disability. Now, researchers
have developed a stretchable conductive hydrogel that could someday be
used to repair these types of nerves when there's damage. They report
their results in ACS Nano.


========================================================================== Injuries in which a peripheral nerve has been completely severed, such as
a deep cut from an accident, are difficult to treat. A common strategy,
called autologous nerve transplantation, involves removing a section of peripheral nerve from elsewhere in the body and sewing it onto the ends of
the severed one. However, the surgery does not always restore function,
and multiple follow-up surgeries are sometimes needed. Artificial nerve
grafts, in combination with supporting cells, have also been used,
but it often takes a long time for nerves to fully recover. Qun-Dong
Shen, Chang-Chun Wang, Ze-Zhang Zhu and colleagues wanted to develop an effective, fast-acting treatment that could replace autologous nerve transplantation. For this purpose, they decided to explore conducting
hydrogels -- water-swollen, biocompatible polymers that can transmit bioelectrical signals.

The researchers prepared a tough but stretchable conductive hydrogel
containing polyaniline and polyacrylamide. The crosslinked polymer had
a 3D microporous network that, once implanted, allowed nerve cells to
enter and adhere, helping restore lost tissue. The team showed that the material could conduct bioelectrical signals through a damaged sciatic
nerve removed from a toad.

Then, they implanted the hydrogel into rats with sciatic nerve
injuries. Two weeks later, the rats' nerves recovered their bioelectrical properties, and their walking improved compared with untreated
rats. Because the electricity- conducting properties of the material
improve with irradiation by near-infrared light, which can penetrate
tissues, it could be possible to further enhance nerve conduction and
recovery in this way, the researchers say.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Key Research and
Development Program of China, the National Natural Science Foundation
of China, the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research
Team in University, and Program B for Outstanding Ph.D. Candidate of
Nanjing University.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by American_Chemical_Society. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Mei Dong, Bo Shi, Dun Liu, Jia-Hao Liu, Di Zhao, Zheng-Hang Yu,
Xiao-Quan
Shen, Jia-Min Gan, Ben-long Shi, Yong Qiu, Chang-Chun Wang,
Ze-Zhang Zhu, Qun-Dong Shen. Conductive Hydrogel for a
Photothermal-Responsive Stretchable Artificial Nerve and
Coalescing with a Damaged Peripheral Nerve. ACS Nano, 2020; DOI:
10.1021/acsnano.0c05197 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201007085636.htm

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