Repair of Peripheral Nerve Defects Using a Polyvinylidene Fluoride channel Containing Never Growth Factor and Collagen Gel in Adult Rats

Objective: As effectiveness of the autologous graft in the repair of long nerve defects isvery limited an effective substitute is needed. This study was conducted to determine thepoled polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) tube as an alternative to nerve autograft.Materials and Methods: The left sciatic nerve was transected in 45 male Wistar rats. Theanimals were then divided randomly into three groups: in an epineural group the nervewas sutured end to end; in an autograft group a 10 mm piece of sciatic nerve was cut,rotated 180° and sutured in the nerve gap; and in a nerve guidance channel group (NGC),PVDF, tube containing nerve growth factor (NGF) and collagen gel was placed in the gap.In a control (n=15) group the sciatic nerve was exposed but not transected. To determineaxonal regeneration, retrograde DiI tracer was injected into the gastrocnemius muscle.One week later, retrograde-labeled neurons were counted in the L4-L6 spinal segmentsand one way ANOVA analysis was performed to compare groups. Neuronal morphologychanges were studied by electron microscopy.Results: Significant statistical decreases in the mean number of labeled motoneuronswere observed in all surgical groups compared to the control group; and in the autograftand the NGC groups compared to epinural suture group (p