These magnetically templated tissue engineering scaffolds for biomedical applications, particularly as nerve guides for peripheral nerve injury repair. Peripheral nerve injuries (PNI) have a significant socioeconomic impact, resulting in over 8 million restricted activity days and over 5 million disability days per year. Over 200,000 PNI repair procedures are performed yearly in the U.S., with an estimated market for transected peripheral nerve injury repair of about $1.32-$1.93 billion. The current approach for repairing nerve injuries with gaps greater than 2 cm is autografts, commonly from the patient’s sural nerve. However, autografts have significant morbidity and functional deficit at the donor site, are not readily available, and matching the size of the donor nerve to the repaired nerve is often difficult. In addition, studies indicate motor function recovery occurs in only 40 to 50 percent of patients. A need exists for a bioengineered peripheral nerve scaffold with architectural and chemical components of natural peripheral nerve tissue, facilitating the repair of any size nerve gaps.
Researchers at the University of Florida have developed magnetically templated, biocompatible tissue engineering scaffolds, with aligned porosity with dimensions greater than 2 cm, for tissue growth and repair, including peripheral nerve repair. The magnetic particles can control the direction and extent of the aligned pores and channel structures of the scaffolds, allowing for peripheral nerve injury repairs of more considerable distances.
Magnetically template tissue engineering scaffolds with aligned pores and channels for tissue growth and repair, including peripheral nerve repair
These magnetically templated tissue scaffolds use magnetic nanoparticles encapsulated in a dissolvable, biocompatible matrix material. The influencing magnetic field causes the microparticles to align, forming a plurality of lines and columns that are spatially aligned. The scaffolding material crosslinks and polymerizes to form a solid, three-dimensional scaffold structure around the nanoparticles. The magnetic nanoparticle matrix then dissolves to produce aligned voids and microchannels, with aligned porosities with dimensions greater than 2 cm within the scaffold, allowing for nerve repair of greater distances.
