Feasibility of silk nerve conduits for spinal repair application

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Spinal cord injury (SCI) is an overwhelming health condition that causes permanent disabilities and even death. Left untreated the spinal cord is not able to heal itselfThere are currently no implantable devices for spinal cord nerve injury. Rehabilitation is expensive and has limited success with respect to regaining mobility and improving patient quality of life.Our first (IP protected) product is a peripheral nerve repair bridge with a standardised design that will be available off-the-shelf in a range of lengths. Stents 3 cm in length will be compared to autografts (2-3 cm as standard) with the option for longer lengths (<5 cm). The bridge is an all silk biocompatible tubular silk conduit surrounding silk fibres of bespoke dimensions. These luminal fibres have proven nerve-regenerating properties with the sleeve tube designed to protect the growing nerves and encourage vascularisation.Given that peripheral nerve fibres are the same everywhere in the body we provide a new approach to treating patients for injuries caused by trauma or invasive surgery that would currently face absence of treatment options or suffer the morbidity of autograft repairs.