Dehua Meng, Qintong Xu, Zenggan Chen, Jianfeng Pan, Libo Jiang, Jiapeng Zou, Yaqin Yuan, Jian Zhang, William C Lineaweaver, Feng Zhang
BACKGROUND: Acellular nerve allografts (ANAs) were developed to replace the autologous nerve grafts (ANGs) to fill the peripheral nerve defects. Poor vascularization relative to ANGs has been a limitation of application of ANAs. METHODS: A total of 60 female Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned 3 groups. The rats in A group received ANGs, the rats in B group received ANAs, and the rats in C group were transplanted with ANA carrying endothelial cells (ANA + ECs). In the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 12th postoperative weeks, 5 rats were selected from each group for evaluating sciatic function index (SFI), electrophysiology, maximum tetanic force recovery rate, tibialis anterior muscle weights recovery rate, and microvessel density...
May 1, 2024: Annals of Plastic Surgery