Figure 3.

Effects of nerve repair on medial gastrocnemius muscle mass (A), maximal isometric force production (B), and specific force production (C) following a 12 week recovery.

Values are expressed as the mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, vs. control; #P < 0.05, vs. autograft (one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's post hoc analysis). In the control group (n = 5 in A–C), the contralateral legs of the autograft animals were used. In the autograft (n = 5 in A–C) group, a 10 mm sciatic nerve segment was transected, reversed and then coapted to the two newly formed nerve stumps. In the ENC (n = 8 in A, n = 6 in B, C) and EFC (n = 10 in A, n = 8 in B, C) groups, 10 mm nerve segments were removed and the engineered conduits were coapted to the distal and proximal nerve stumps. ENC: Engineered nerve conduit; EFC: engineered fibroblast conduit.