Table 2.
Nerve regeneration in healthy Wistar rats and in diabetic Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats
| hCNG-Ihealthy (n = 5) | CFeCNG-Ihealthy (n = 6) | hCNG-Idiabetic (n = 11) | CFeCNG-Idiabetic (n = 7) | p-values (KW) | Fisher’s methoda | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hCNG-I/CFeCNG-I | Healthy/diabetic | ||||||
| Preoperative B-glucose (mmol/l) | 3.9 [3.7–4.3] | 4.0 [3.4–4.1] | 7.9 [7.1–8.7] | 8.1 [6.7–8.6] | 0.0001 | 0.96 | <0.0001 |
| Regenerative Matrix Present (non-complete/complete single-strand/complete double-strand) | 1/4/0 | 2/2/2 | 8/3/0 | 0/1/6 | NA | NA | NA |
| Axonal outgrowth (neurofilament present in SND) | 5/5 | 6/6 | 11/11 | 7/7 | NA | NA | NA |
| ATF-3 (% of total) | |||||||
| At 3 mm | 8.1 [3.0–9.1] | 8.8 [6.2–10.6] | 6.0 [4.5–10.4] | 9.5 [5.2–11.1] | 0.51 | NA | NA |
| In conduit | TFO | 11.4 [6.8–12.7]d | 16.8 [15.8–22.3]b | 14.2 [10.3–22.5] | 0.29 | NA | NA |
| In SND | 7.3 [6.2–16.7] | 10.2 [8.6–12.9] | 12.2 [9.4–14.3] | 6.5 [6.0–11.1] | 0.23 | NA | NA |
| Cleaved caspase-3 (% of total) | |||||||
| At 3 mm | 30.5 [27.4–37.7] | 31.2 [25.2–33.1] | 31.9 [28.8–46.8] | 19.1 [14.6–20.1] | 0.004 | 0.001 | 0.02 |
| In conduit | TFO | TFO | 14.2 [12.5–16.1]c | 12.9 [11.1–17.6] | 0.082 | NA | NA |
| In SND | 28.0 [22.1–33.5] | 28.6 [25.2–38.8] | 37.8 [27.1–41.7] | 37.4 [30.7–39.2] | 0.36 | NA | NA |
| DAPI stained cells (no/mm2) | |||||||
| At 3 mm | 167 [139–195] | 156 [129–185] | 184 [152–206] | 169 [151–232] | 0.59 | NA | NA |
| In conduit | TFO | 3490 [3362–3980]d | 1727 [1412–2921] | 3198 [1991–3635] | 0.21 | NA | NA |
| In SND | 2823 [2201–3234] | 2542 [2083–3036] | 3071 [2445–3454] | 2732 [2330–3733] | 0.60 | NA | NA |
At 45 days post injury, a 15 mm long sciatic nerve defect has been bridged by a one-chambered hollow chitosan nerve guide (hCNG-I) or a two-chambered chitosan nerve guide with a centrally introduced chitosan film (CFeCNG-I). Evaluation was performed after a further 56 days. Values are median 25th(Q1)–75th(Q3) percentiles
Italic p-values indicate statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) between the examined groups
KW Kruskal–Wallis, SND distal nerve segment, TFO too few observations to apply statistics, NA not applicable (i.e. KW = Kruskal–Wallis not significant)
aFisher’s method for independent samples based on the Chi square distribution from the subsequent Mann–Whitney test after Kruskal–Wallis test
b6 missing values
c7 missing values
d2 missing values