Mitchel Faulkner, Brigham Young University
Engineering
Introduction
Trauma patients frequently require the regeneration of peripheral nerves to restore motor and proprioceptive function. Currently, the best treatment option for such patients is an autograft nerve transplant. Alternative methods include collagen-based conduits and decellularized nerves. Seeding these scaffolds with cells is a new approach that may result in faster regeneration.
Prior to adding cells, the nerve tissue is chemically treated with detergents such as sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) or Triton X-100 in order to remove immunogenic components of the tissue, thereby reducing the possibility of rejection by the recipient. However, high detergent concentrations can also be harmful to structural proteins in the nerves. The goal of this research is to test if nerves can be effectively decellularized using hypotonic water washes in combination with lower detergent concentrations.
Methods
Sciatic nerves were extracted from deceased rats by resecting the gluteus maximus and transecting the sciatic nerve distal to the sacral plexus and proximal to the popliteal fossa. Nerves were then placed in hypotonic, SDS, and Triton X-100 solutions at differing concentrations.
Results
The lower concentrations of SDS along with the use of hypotonic solution decellularized the nerves nearly identically to Triton X-100. Therefore, the use of hypotonic solution provided similar results with half of the exposure time to detergents.
Discussion and Conclusions
Triton X-100 and SDS have been shown to be superior to other detergents for decellularization, however these strong detergents could have detrimental effects on nerve tissue scaffolds. In future research, our team will carry out further experimentation on the stability of nerves after various decellularization methods; such as hypotonic/ hypertonic solution washes in conjunction with SDS as a potential alternative to the currently accepted Triton-X 100 wash. If the stability of the decellularized nerves can be maintained, this will provide an environment that is conducive to regeneration.