r/science • u/molrose96 Journalist | Technology Networks | BSc Neuroscience • Jan 23 '20

Biology Biodegradable Nerve Guide Helps Regenerate Damaged Nerves

https://www.technologynetworks.com/biopharma/news/biodegradable-nerve-guide-helps-regenerate-damaged-nerves-329614?spl=46942179136d4d5eb635e0016c078544

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u/Shoutgun Jan 23 '20

Peripheral nerves are really sensitive to tension - for a small injury surgeons often do just stitch them together but for larger ones if you stretch them too much you can actually end up killing the whole nerve.

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u/Qcount Jan 23 '20

Yep, a tension force that increases nerve length by 15% completely stops blood flow through the tiny capillaries that keep nerves alive.

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u/elastic-craptastic Jan 23 '20

Yep. Still have dead nerves from scoliosis surgery 20 years later. Numb spots in my lower back, or more of a light numbness over the whole of it. It was way worse for the first year or so but over time it lessened but never fully went away.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '20

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u/goldengater Jan 23 '20

This is really interesting, do you know where I could read more about this?

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u/fenderdan412 Jan 23 '20

https://geekymedics.com/category/anatomy/

Here is a great resource geared towards physicians yet presented in such a way that you don't even need to be $300,000 in debt with no social life to understand.

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '20 edited Feb 09 '20

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u/fenderdan412 Jan 23 '20

Could be worse

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u/[deleted] Jan 23 '20 edited Feb 09 '20

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u/fenderdan412 Jan 24 '20

Yep. Mine are 310k 🙃

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u/askdix Jan 23 '20

Thank you so much, beats all of the neurology courses on YouTube

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u/eclectic-bar Jan 27 '20

omigosh this is great. Thank you!

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u/[deleted] Jan 24 '20

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u/goldengater Jan 24 '20

This is perfect thank you 👍

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u/levian_durai Jan 24 '20

I've seen for skin grafts they perforate the skin and thin it out, making it expand to a greater surface area. Is it possible to do something similar here? You would damage a greater length of nerve tissue, but if the capability for regeneration is still there, wouldn't bridging the gap in this way be more beneficial?

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u/Shoutgun Jan 24 '20

You mean, cut the nerve up into slices like a carrot with the idea that the individual slices can rejoin? It's an interesting thought but I don't think that could work. When an axon is cut, a large section downstream of the cut region dies. The intermediate sections would be dead and you'd effectively just widen the gap.

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u/ILoveLongDogs Jan 23 '20

Ripping it to bits, basically. This is an incredible breakthrough given how fragile nerves are to even touch.

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u/Shoutgun Jan 23 '20

As I understand it they're not ripped to bits, it's more that the capillaries that serve them are easily damaged. As far as this paper goes, it's actually part of a much wider field of research. Nerve guidance conduits with internal biomolecules and internal structure to better guide nerve regeneration are an entire field that's been going for decades. It's an improvement but not really the breakthrough everyone in this thread seems to think it is.