The Healing Hug Of A Nanofiber Mesh

Researchers have developed a soft, biodegradable mesh that can release vitamin B12 at the site of injury to help nerves to regenerate and restore their function.

AsianScientist (Mar. 15 2017) – Researchers in Japan have developed a vitamin-laced mesh which can be wrapped around injured peripheral nerves to facilitate their regeneration and restore their functions. These findings have been published in Acta Biomaterialia.

Artificial nerve conduits have been developed in the past to treat peripheral nerve injuries, but they merely form a cross-link to the injury site and do not promote faster nerve regeneration. Moreover, their application is limited to relatively few patients suffering from a complete loss of nerve continuity.

Vitamin B12 is known to facilitate nerve regeneration, but oral intake of B12 has not proven to be very effective and no devices capable of delivering vitamin B12 directly to affected sites had been available. Such medical devices would help the many patients who suffer from nerve injuries but have not lost nerve continuity.

A joint research team from the National Institute for Materials Science and Osaka University joint research team recently developed a special mesh that can be wrapped around an injured nerve which releases vitamin B12 (methylcobalamin) until the injury heals.

By developing very fine mesh fibers (several hundred nanometers in diameter) and reducing the crystallinity of the fibers, the team successfully created a very soft mesh that can be wrapped around a nerve. This mesh is made of a biodegradable plastic which, when implanted in animals, is eventually eliminated from the body. In fact, experiments demonstrated that applying of the mesh directly to injured sciatic nerves in rats resulted in regeneration of axons and recovery of motor and sensory functions within six weeks.

The team is currently negotiating with a pharmaceutical company and other organizations to jointly study clinical application of the mesh as a medical device to treat peripheral nerve disorders, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.


The article can be found at: Suzuki et al. (2017) Electrospun Nanofiber Sheets Incorporating Methylcobalamin Promote Nerve Regeneration and Functional Recovery in a Rat Sciatic Nerve Crush Injury Model.

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Source: National Institute for Materials Science.
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