Miniature honeycomb 'grows nerve'

A "miniature honeycomb" - or scaffold - could one day be used to
encourage damaged nerves to grow and recover, according to an
international group of researchers.
The scaffold can channel clusters of nerves through its honeycomb of
holes, eventually healing a severed nerve.
The findings of their study on mouse nerves are published in the
journal Biofabrication.
Academics hope to one daytreat spinal cord injuries with the scaffold.
When nerves are severed, such as in car accidents, it can result in a
loss of feeling and movement.
Repairing this damage can be a challenge - but nerves outside of the
brain and spinal cord can repair themselves, if only over short
distances.
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One technique to improve this repair is to use tubes. Either end of
the severed nerve is placed in a tube and the two ends of the nerve
should grow and joinin the middle.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield and Laser Zentrum Hannover,
Germany, investigated using a honeycomb structure.
Dr Frederik Claeyssens, from the department of materials science and
engineering at Sheffield, told the BBC: "That is much more like the
structure of the nerve itself.
"The nerve has small regions of 'cable' that go through from one end
to the other end, you have a whole bunch of little cablesinside a
larger cable, that's what we tried to reproducewith this type of
scaffold."
The honeycomb is made from photopolymerizable polylactic acid, which
biodegrades once the nerve has repaired.
The researchers showed nerve cells could grow on the scaffold and are
now testing it in mice to see if itcan fully repair the damage.
Dr Frederik Claeyssens said:"This technology could make a huge
difference to patients suffering severe nerve damage."
Scaffold technology is used in a range of "regenerative medicines".
Building a scaffold and then coating itwith human cells has, for
example, been used to givepatients new windpipes and bladders/

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