Repair And Regeneration Of The Facial Nerve Defect Using Silk Fibroin-chitosan Conduit

ObjectiveTo evaluate the feasibility of using SFCS as nerve conduit for facial nerve regeneration.MethodsTwenty-one male adult rabbit were made the model of 10mm gap on buccal branches of the facial nerve under sterile condition.SFCS nerve conduit was used to repair the right gap of facial nerve,as experimental group,and autologous nerve were grafted into the left gap,as control group.General observation,electrophysilogical examination,histology detectiom,observed the regeneration of the repaired facial nerves of rabbits at the different time and image analysis were performed 2,4,6,8 weeks postoperatively.SPSS for windows 13.0 was used to analyze the results by Independent samples t test(a=0.05).Resultssilk fibroin-chitosan blend was made,and used to repair the facial nerves rabbits successfully.SFSC nerve conduit was still normal tubular form,at 8 weeks postoperatively, some nerve fibers were observed through the nerve conduit at 4weeks postoperatively.The facial nerve of rabbit regenerated successfully,more quick NCV,more axon's number,more thick myelin sheath,mean NCV of regenerated nerve in SFCS nerve confuit was(27.5±3.00)m/s at 8 weeks postoperatively,which had no statistical significance compared with that of control group(29.9±2.43m/s)(P=0.262);and the average thickness of myelin sheath,the average number of axon of regenerated nerve in SFCS nerve conduit was(12.71±0.42)pm,(741.80±49.92),which had no statistical significance compared with that of control group(12.34±0.43;748.60±80.09)(P=-0.524, P=0.945).ConclusionRepaired the facia nerve of rabbits with SFCS nerve conduitsl from silk fibroin and chitosan mixed.The SFCS nerve conduit could effectively repair facial nerve defect and improve peripheral nerve functional recovery,nerve conduit with silk fibroin-chitosan blend offers a possible substitute for the repair of peripheral nerve defect.