Feasibility of silk nerve conduits for spinal repair application

脊髓损伤(SCI)是一种压倒性的健康状况，会导致永久性残疾甚至死亡。如果不进行治疗，脊髓不能自我愈合目前还没有可植入的装置来治疗脊髓神经损伤。康复费用昂贵，在恢复活动能力和提高患者生活质量方面的成功有限。我们的第一个(受IP保护的)产品是具有标准化设计的周围神经修复桥，将提供各种长度的现成产品。长度为3厘米的支架将与自体移植(标准长度为2-3厘米)进行比较，可选择更长的长度(&lt；5厘米)。这座桥是一种全真丝生物兼容管状丝质管道，环绕着定制尺寸的真丝纤维。这些管腔纤维已被证明具有神经再生特性，袖管旨在保护生长的神经并促进血管形成。鉴于周围神经纤维在身体各处都是相同的，我们提供了一种新的方法来治疗因创伤或侵入性手术造成的损伤，目前这些患者将面临治疗方案的缺乏或遭受自体移植修复的发病率。

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.