Peripheral nerve injury remains a clinical challenge with severe physiological and functional consequences. Despite the existence of multiple possible therapeutic approaches, until now, there is no consensus regarding the advantages of each option or the best methodology in promoting nerve regeneration. Regenerative medicine is a promise to overcome this medical limitation, and in this work, chitosan nerve guide conduits and olfactory mucosa mesenchymal stem/stromal cells were applied in different therapeutic combinations to promote regeneration in sciatic nerves after neurotmesis injury. Over 20 weeks, the intervened animals were subjected to a regular functional assessment (determination of motor performance, nociception, and sciatic indexes), and after this period, they were evaluated kinematically and the sciatic nerves and cranial tibial muscles were evaluated stereologically and histomorphometrically, respectively. The results obtained allowed confirming the beneficial effects of using these therapeutic approaches. The use of chitosan NGCs and cells resulted in better motor performance, better sciatic indexes, and lower gait dysfunction after 20 weeks. The use of only NGGs demonstrated better nociceptive recoveries. The stereological evaluation of the sciatic nerve revealed identical values in the different parameters for all therapeutic groups. In the muscle histomorphometric evaluation, the groups treated with NGCs and cells showed results close to those of the group that received traditional sutures, the one with the best final values. The therapeutic combinations studied show promising outcomes and should be the target of new future works to overcome some irregularities found in the results and establish the combination of nerve guidance conduits and olfactory mucosa mesenchymal stem/stromal cells as viable options in the treatment of peripheral nerves after injury.

中文翻译：

---

壳聚糖和嗅粘膜间充质干细胞/基质细胞的组合使用，以促进体内外周神经再生。

周围神经损伤仍然是临床挑战，具有严重的生理和功能后果。尽管存在多种可能的治疗方法，但迄今为止，关于每种选择的优点或促进神经再生的最佳方法尚无共识。再生医学有望克服这一医学上的局限性，在这项工作中，将壳聚糖神经引导导管和嗅粘膜间充质干/基质细胞以不同的治疗组合应用，以促进神经痛性坐骨神经损伤后坐骨神经的再生。在20周内，对介入的动物进行定期的功能评估（运动功能，伤害感受和坐骨神经指数的确定），然后在此之后，对它们进行运动学评估，并对坐骨神经和颅骨胫骨肌肉分别进行体视学和组织形态学评估。获得的结果证实了使用这些治疗方法的有益效果。20周后，使用壳聚糖NGC和细胞可导致更好的运动表现，更好的坐骨神经指数和更低的步态功能障碍。仅使用NGG具有更好的伤害恢复性。坐骨神经的立体评估显示，所有治疗组在不同参数中的值相同。在肌肉组织形态计量学评估中，经NGC和细胞处理的组显示的结果与接受传统缝线的组（最终值最高的组）接近。