Bioactive Materials (Oct 2024)

Chitosan/PLGA-based tissue engineered nerve grafts with SKP-SC-EVs enhance sciatic nerve regeneration in dogs through miR-30b-5p-mediated regulation of axon growth

  • Miaomei Yu,
  • Mi Shen,
  • Daiyue Chen,
  • Yan Li,
  • Qiang Zhou,
  • Chunyan Deng,
  • Xinyang Zhou,
  • Qi Zhang,
  • Qianru He,
  • Hongkui Wang,
  • Meng Cong,
  • Haiyan Shi,
  • Xiaosong Gu,
  • Songlin Zhou,
  • Fei Ding

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 40
pp. 378 – 395

Abstract

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Extracellular vesicles from skin-derived precursor Schwann cells (SKP-SC-EVs) promote neurite outgrowth in culture and enhance peripheral nerve regeneration in rats. This study aimed at expanding the application of SKP-SC-EVs in nerve grafting by creating a chitosan/PLGA-based, SKP-SC-EVs-containing tissue engineered nerve graft (TENG) to bridge a 40-mm long sciatic nerve defect in dogs. SKP-SC-EVs contained in TENGs significantly accelerated the recovery of hind limb motor and electrophysiological functions, supported the outgrowth and myelination of regenerated axons, and alleviated the denervation-induced atrophy of target muscles in dogs. To clarify the underlying molecular mechanism, we observed that SKP-SC-EVs were rich in a variety of miRNAs linked to the axon growth of neurons, and miR-30b-5p was the most important among others. We further noted that miR-30b-5p contained within SKP-SC-EVs exerted nerve regeneration-promoting effects by targeting the Sin3a/HDAC complex and activating the phosphorylation of ERK, STAT3 or CREB. Our findings suggested that SKP-SC-EVs-incorporating TENGs represent a novel type of bioactive material with potential application for peripheral nerve repair in the clinic.

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