Publications related to Recent Advances in Polymeric Drug Delivery Systems for Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

A Novel 3D-Printed/Porous Conduit with Tunable Properties to Enhance Nerve Regeneration Over the Limiting Gap Length

Engineered grafts constitute an alternative to autologous transplant for repairing severe peripheral nerve injuries. However, current clinically available solutions have substantial limitations and are not suited for the repair of long nerve defects. A nov ...

Wiley2023

Improved Physiochemical Properties of Chitosan@PCL Nerve Conduits by Natural Molecule Crosslinking

Silvestro Micera

Nerve conduits may represent a valuable alternative to autograft for the regeneration of long-gap damages. However, no NCs have currently reached market approval for the regeneration of limiting gap lesions, which still represents the very bottleneck of th ...

MDPI2023

The circadian clock time tunes axonal regeneration

Thomas Haynes Hutson

Nerve injuries cause permanent neurological disability due to limited axonal regeneration. Injury-dependent and-independent mechanisms have provided important insight into neuronal regeneration, however, common denominators underpinning regeneration remain ...

Cell Press2023

Soft bioelectronic technologies for selective and multimodal peripheral nerve interfaces

Valentina Marie Paggi

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) regulates the exchange of sensory information and motor commands between the body and the central nervous system. Further, through the autonomic nervous system, the PNS plays a pivotal role in controlling vital physiolog ...

EPFL2023

Targeted regeneration of spinal cord neurons across a complete injury restores walking

Marco Milano

Spinal cord injury (SCI) interrupts axonal connections between the brain and the spinal cord, and is characterized by a spectrum of sensorimotor and autonomic impairments. While spontaneous recovery is limited, recent studies have shown that functional imp ...

EPFL2023

Low-Intensity Electrostimulation Enhances Neuroregeneration and Improves Erectile Function in a Rat Model of Cavernous Nerve Injury

Nikolaos Stergiopoulos, Mikaël Nils Sturny, Rodrigo Araujo Fraga Da Silva

Background: Neurogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) following radical prostatectomy (RP) is a frequent complication often leading to erectile tissue remodeling and permanent ED. Low-intensity electrostimulation (LIES) has been shown to enhance peripheral nerv ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

All-Polymer Printed Low-Cost Regenerative Nerve Cuff Electrodes

Silvestro Micera

Neural regeneration after lesions is still limited by several factors and new technologies are developed to address this issue. Here, we present and test in animal models a new regenerative nerve cuff electrode (RnCE). It is based on a novel low-cost fabri ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2021

Development of a peripheral neuroprosthesis to elicit fine hand movements in primates

Marion Aimée Geneviève Badi-Dubois

Neurological disorders such as spinal cord lesion and stroke disturb sensorimotor pathways and result in severe motor deficits that can dreadfully impact the quality of life of affected individuals. Strategies aiming at restoring hand function after upper- ...

EPFL2021

Towards an artificial cell: Development of a system which self-regenerates the protein components of the PURE system in microfluidic reactors

Barbora Lavickova

Thanks to recent advancements in synthetic biology, the dream of creating a synthetic cell has become feasible. However, due to its inherent complexity, one of the fundamental functions of all living systems, i.e., self-replication, remains to be introduce ...

EPFL2021

Investigation of electrical stimulation of the optic nerve for artificial vision

Vivien Gaillet

Thanks to recent technological advances in microelectronics and bioengineering, it is now possible to restore lost or impaired sensory modalities by interfering the nervous system with elec-tronic devices and artificially reproducing the electrical encodin ...

EPFL2021

Probing myelin content of the human brain with MRI: A review

Jean-Philippe Thiran, Tobias Kober, Tom Hilbert, Gian Franco Piredda

Rapid and efficient transmission of electric signals among neurons of vertebrates is ensured by myelin-insulating sheaths surrounding axons. Human cognition, sensation, and motor functions rely on the integrity of these layers, and demyelinating diseases o ...

WILEY2021

Axon regeneration and circuit reorganization after complete spinal cord injury

Sabry Leonardo Barlatey

First human trials involving neuroprosthetic rehabilitation demonstrated recently that significant functional benefits can be achieved with lumbosacral neuromodulation and reorganized spared projections. However, complete spinal cord injuries (SCI) wholly ...

EPFL2019

Schwann cells ER-associated degradation contributes to myelin maintenance in adult nerves and limits demyelination in CMT1B mice

Maurizio Molinari, Francesca Bianchi

In the peripheral nervous system (PNS) myelinating Schwann cells synthesize large amounts of myelin protein zero (P0) glycoprotein, an abundant component of peripheral nerve myelin. In humans, mutations in P0 cause the demyelinating Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1B ...

2019

ErbB receptor signaling directly controls oligodendrocyte progenitor cell transformation and spontaneous remyelination after spinal cord injury

Nicholas David James

We recently discovered a novel role for neuregulin-1 (Nrg1) signaling in mediating spontaneous regenerative processes and functional repair after spinal cord injury (SCI). We revealed that Nrg1 is the molecular signal responsible for spontaneous functional ...

2019

Microchannel-based technologies for nerve interfacing

Sandra Gribi

Biomedical technologies in neuroprosthetics are made to restore or replace functions from the nervous system, as well as alleviate pathological conditions. Peripheral nerve interfaces use neuromodulatory techniques to inhibit pain or depression, prevent ep ...

EPFL2019

Cbp-dependent histone acetylation mediates axon regeneration induced by environmental enrichment in rodent spinal cord injury models

Grégoire Courtine, Quentin Barraud, Kay Alexander Bartholdi, Claudia Kathe, Thomas Haynes Hutson

After a spinal cord injury, axons fail to regenerate in the adult mammalian central nervous system, leading to permanent deficits in sensory and motor functions. Increasing neuronal activity after an injury using electrical stimulation or rehabilitation ca ...

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE2019

A microfabricated nerve-on-a-chip platform for rapid assessment of neural conduction in explanted peripheral nerve fibers

Sandra Gribi, Stéphanie Lacour, Sophie du Bois de Dunilac, Diego Ghezzi

Peripheral nerves are anisotropic and heterogeneous neural tissues. Their complex physiology restricts realistic in vitro models, and high resolution and selective probing of axonal activity. Here, we present a nerve-on-a-chip platform that enables rapid e ...

Nature Research2018

Required growth facilitators propel axon regeneration across complete spinal cord injury

Sabry Leonardo Barlatey, Grégoire Courtine, Cheng Wang, Mark Andrew Anderson, Michael V. Sofroniew, Zhigang He, Nicholas David James

Transected axons fail to regrow across anatomically complete spinal cord injuries (SCI) in adults. Diverse molecules can partially facilitate or attenuate axon growth during development or after injury1,2,3, but efficient reversal of this regrowth failure ...

2018

Fascicular nerve stimulation and recording using a novel double-aisle regenerative electrode

Silvestro Micera

Objective. As artificial prostheses become more refined, they are most often used as a therapeutic option for hand amputation. By contrast to extra- or intraneural interfaces, regenerative nerve electrodes are designed to enable electrical interfaces with ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2017

Preferential Enhancement of Sensory and Motor Axon Regeneration by Combining Extracellular Matrix Components with Neurotrophic Factors

Silvestro Micera, Daniel Santos

After peripheral nerve injury, motor and sensory axons are able to regenerate but inaccuracy of target reinnervation leads to poor functional recovery. Extracellular matrix (ECM) components and neurotrophic factors (NTFs) exert their effect on different ne ...

2017