Silk confirmed as a promising material for repair of injured nerves

Medicine & Science The treatment of nerve injuries with the aid of nerve guidance conduits has led to the desired regenerative success in some, but by no means all, cases. In a recently published study, a research team from MedUni Vienna and the University of Oxford has used silk as a promising material for repairing severed nerves. In their experiments with silk from silkworms and spiders, the scientists also gained new insights into the effects on silks on neuronal healing processes. The study results have just been published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials and could significantly advance therapeutic options in peripheral nerve reconstruction. In the search for improved therapeutic options for nerve injuries, the team led by Christine Radtke, head of MedUni Vienna's Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, produced in collaboration with researchers of the University of Oxford nerve conduits from two different types of silk: silk from silkworms was used for the tubes, while silk from spiders was used to fill them. The function of these conduits was investigated in an animal model: as the experiments showed, the severed nerves adapted to the novel silk nerve guidance conduits and grew along the silk threads over the defect distance until the severed nerve endings were successfully reconnected. "As part of our study, we not only succeeded in nerve repair, we were also able to analyze the components of the healing process in detail," says first author Lorenz Semmler from the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery at MedUni Vienna, summarizing key study findings.