Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Biomedical Engineering

Major Professor

WEI HE

Committee Members

KENNETH D. KIHM, ROBERTO S. BENSON

Abstract

Peripheral Nerve Injury is one of the most common and serious traumatic injuries. About 300,000 cases of peripheral nerve injury are reported annually in Europe and another 50,000 procedures performed annually in the United States. Peripheral nerve injury can lead to lifelong disability and also death in severe cases. Repair techniques remain a major challenge because of lack of efficient regeneration. Though techniques like autografts are highly efficient, they face a lot of drawbacks. Alternate methods focus on the use of growth supporting and enhancement components in nerve guidance channels. Current research necessitates the use of a combination of compounds for enhanced nerve growth. In this thesis we study the combined effect of Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), laminin and Retinoic acid (RA) on nerve growth. This study is aimed at attaining higher efficiency in nerve growth by using a combination of compounds not tested together before. We expect to see an enhanced outgrowth, supposedly caused by the synergistic effect of these components, which will be greater than the outgrowth caused when these compounds are used individually or in combination with another compound. Chick dorsal root ganglion cells were cultured for 36 hrs in the presence of 50ng/ml NGF, 50μg/ml laminin and 1μM RA, either used individually, or in combination with another compound, or synergistically. The efficiency of each condition was determined based on neurite extension and area of outgrowth. The triple component system produced significantly greater neurite extension and outgrowth compared to all when the compounds are used individually or in combination with one another. The neurite length in the triple component system was 5 fold that of control whereas the area of outgrowth was as high as 60 times that of control. This enhanced neurite growth achieved will pave way for efficient nerve guidance channels development.

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