Freitag, 19. Januar 2018, 15:15 - 16:45 iCal

MATERIALS SCIENCE SEMINAR

"Translational application of spider silk for nerve tissue engineering"

Gastvortrag von Prof. C. Radtke (Medizinische Universität Wien)

Chemische Institute, Hörsaal 4, Halbstock
Währinger Straße 42, 1090 Wien

Seminar, Workshop, Kurs


Spider silk is one of the most promising biomaterials with effects not only in nerve regeneration but generally in regenerative applications. Biomaterials in use for biomedical applications have to meet a number of requirements like biocompatibility and a mild inflammatory response, biodegradability in a reasonable time and specific structural properties. These demands are perfectly met by the biomechanical and biomedical characteristics of native spider silk.

Spider silk fibers can provide framework and it was demonstrated that Schwann cells adhered sufficiently on native spider silk fibers with high vitality rates excluding any toxic or harmful effects on the cells. A nerve conduit was developed based on these data consisting of spider silk fibers within a decellularized vein in which the supplemented Schwann cells aligned along the fibers.

In order to demonstrate that spider silk can be used as a nerve conduit natural dragline silk was incorporated into decellularized veins and transplanted in critical size nerve defect injuries. Axonal regrowth and remyelination were achieved in the peripheral nervous system replacing 60 mm nerve defect in sheep. The regenerated axons were found 8 months after lesion induction and nerve repair and moreover, the axons were as well myelinated by endogenous invaded Schwann cells. These results demonstrate that our artificial nerve construct consisting of acellularized veins filled with spider silk results in peripheral nerve regeneration similar to autologous nerve transplantation. Here we present current status of the research in this filed and discuss current advances with regard to potential clinical transfer.


Veranstalter

Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Wien


Kontakt

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kautek
Universität Wien
Institut für Physikalische Chemie
0043 664 60277 52470
wolfgang.kautek@univie.ac.at