The effective repair and functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury is still a hot topic in clinical research. The aim of this study was to construct a bioactive composite hydrogel conduit as a three-dimensional scaffold for the repair of rat sciatic nerve defects. The composite hydrogel conduit was fabricated by blending different volumes of polyacrylamide, graphene oxide, gelatin, and sodium alginate (PAM/GO/Gel/SA，PGGS) and injecting into a self-made mold with an inner diameter of 2 mm and an outer diameter of 6 mm. Then the conduit was further modified with YIGSR peptide. The properties of the conduit were firstly characterized by morphology, swelling behaviors, tensile test and then the conduits were implanted into rat sciatic nerve gap to evaluate their effect on promoting nerve regeneration. The results of diameter analysis indicated that the wall of hydrogel conduit was uniform. The tensile test of the conduit showed that the hydrogel conduit had suitable elastic properties and good mechanical properties. Further on, hematoxylin-eosin staining, masson trichrome staining and immunohistochemistry staining showed that the conduit could effectively promote the regeneration of rat sciatic nerve. Thus, the study demonstrates that the as prepared hydrogel conduits here are beneficial for promoting nerve repair and may have potential application value in nerve regeneration. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 107A: 1273-1283, 2019.
Keywords: composite hydrogel; hydrogel conduit; nerve repair; peripheral nerve; tissue engineering.
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.