Figure 9.
Morphology of distal nerve anastomotic sites at 8 weeks after transplantation of CEANA loaded with neurotrophic factors-transfected BMSCs shown on transverse sections (toluidine blue staining, optical microscope, × 40).
(A1, A2) CEANA + BDNF/BMSCs group; (B1, B2) CEANA + CNTF/BMSCs group; (C1, C2) CEANA + BDNF + CNTF/BMSCs group. In the CEANA + BDNF + CNTF/BMSCs group, there was a large number of large-sized regenerated nerve fibers with thick myelin sheath. The number of myelinated nerve fibers and myelin thickness were greater in the CEANA + BDNF + CNTF/BMSCs group than in the CEANA + BDNF/BMSCs and CEANA + CNTF/BMSCs groups. CEANA: Chemically extracted acellular nerve allografts; BDNF: brain-derived neurotrophic factor; CNTF: ciliary neurotrophic factor; BMSCs: bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells.