Physical guidance cues play an important role in enhancing the efficiency of nerve conduits for peripheral nerve injury repair. However, very few in vivo investigations have been performed to evaluate the repair efficiency of nerve conduits with micro-grooved inner textures. In this study, polyacrylonitrile nerve conduits were prepared using dry-jet wet spinning, and micro-grooved textures were incorporated on the inner surface. The nerve conduits were applied to treat 10 mm sciatic nerve gaps in Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats. Sixteen weeks following implantation, nerve function was evaluated based on heat sensory tests, electrophysiological assessments and gastrocnemius muscle mass measurements. The thermal latency reaction and gastrocnemii weight of SD rats treated with grooved nerve conduits were almost 25% faster and 60% heavier than those of SD rats treated with smooth nerve conduits. The histological and immunohistochemical stain analyses showed the repair capacity of inner grooved conduits was found to be similar to that of autografts. These results suggest that grooved nerve conduits with groove width larger than 300 μm significantly improve peripheral nerve regeneration by introducing physical guidance cues. The obtained results can support the design of nerve conduits and lead to the improvement of nerve tissue engineering strategies.

物理指导线索在提高神经导管对周围神经损伤修复的效率方面起着重要作用。然而，在体内很少已经进行了研究以评估具有微凹槽内部纹理的神经导管的修复效率。在这项研究中，聚丙烯腈神经导管使用干喷湿纺制备，并在内表面加入微槽纹理。神经导管用于治疗 Sprague-Dawley (SD) 大鼠的 10 mm 坐骨神经间隙。植入后 16 周，根据热感觉测试、电生理评估和腓肠肌质量测量评估神经功能。用凹槽神经导管治疗的 SD 大鼠的热潜伏反应和腓肠肌重量比用光滑神经导管治疗的 SD 大鼠快近 25%，重 60%。组织学和免疫组织化学染色分析表明，发现内凹槽导管的修复能力与自体移植物相似。这些结果表明槽宽大于 300 μ m 通过引入物理引导线索显着改善周围神经再生。获得的结果可以支持神经导管的设计，并导致神经组织工程策略的改进。