Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Sep 23:10:973301.
doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.973301. eCollection 2022.

The application of collagen in the repair of peripheral nerve defect

Xiaolan Li  1 , Xiang Zhang  1 , Ming Hao  2   3 , Dongxu Wang  4 , Ziping Jiang  5 , Liqun Sun  6 , Yongjian Gao  7 , Ye Jin  8 , Peng Lei  1 , Yue Zhuo  2
Affiliations
Review

The application of collagen in the repair of peripheral nerve defect

Xiaolan Li et al. Front Bioeng Biotechnol. .

Abstract

Collagen is a natural polymer expressed in the extracellular matrix of the peripheral nervous system. It has become increasingly crucial in peripheral nerve reconstruction as it was involved in regulating Schwann cell behaviors, maintaining peripheral nerve functions during peripheral nerve development, and being strongly upregulated after nerve injury to promote peripheral nerve regeneration. Moreover, its biological properties, such as low immunogenicity, excellent biocompatibility, and biodegradability make it a suitable biomaterial for peripheral nerve repair. Collagen provides a suitable microenvironment to support Schwann cells' growth, proliferation, and migration, thereby improving the regeneration and functional recovery of peripheral nerves. This review aims to summarize the characteristics of collagen as a biomaterial, analyze its role in peripheral nerve regeneration, and provide a detailed overview of the recent advances concerning the optimization of collagen nerve conduits in terms of physical properties and structure, as well as the application of the combination with the bioactive component in peripheral nerve regeneration.

Keywords: collagen; nerve conduit; nerve regeneration; peripheral nerve injuries; peripheral nerve repair.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic drawing of type I collagen structure. Gly-X-Y is the repeating peptide triplets. X and Y position is often occupied by proline and hydroxyproline. There α-chains are woven together to form procollagen with triple helix. Type I collagen is synthesized in vivo in the form of procollagen. The N- and C-terminal propeptides of procollagen are cleaved off by special enzymatic hydrolysis to form troprocollagen, and trigger spontaneous assembly to form fibrils. This figure was created with BioRender.com.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Schematic diagram summarizing the repair process in the PNI. Damage to peripheral nerves: (1) SCs were rapidly responded and converted into repair SCs. Local resident macrophages are activated. (2) Repair SCs disintegrate distal axons and recruit macrophages to clear debris. (3) Repair SCs release growth factors to promote axon regrowth. Macrophages switch to an anti-inflammatory phenotype (M2). (4) Repair SCs form regeneration tracks to guide axon regrowth. Macrophages secrete anti-inflammatory factors under the stimulation of the local injured microenvironment. (5) SCs proliferate and guide axon regeneration. (6) Finally, SCs transform into myelinating SCs and remyelinate the regenerated axon. This figure was created with BioRender.com.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The role of collagen in peripheral nerve regeneration. The schematic representations of cross-sectional anatomy of the peripheral nerve and the role of collagen in peripheral nerve regeneration are shown on the left and right, respectively. This figure was created with BioRender.com.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Various physical forms and design of collagen in nerve conduit. This figure was created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Aguda A. H., Panwar P., Du X., Nguyen N. T., Brayer G. D., Bromme D. (2014). Structural basis of collagen fiber degradation by cathepsin K. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 111 (49), 17474–17479. 10.1073/pnas.1414126111 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmed M. R., Venkateshwarlu U., Jayakumar R. (2004). Multilayered peptide incorporated collagen tubules for peripheral nerve repair. Biomaterials 25 (13), 2585–2594. 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2003.09.075 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ahmed M. R., Vairamuthu S., Shafiuzama M., Basha S. H., Jayakumar R. (2005). Microwave irradiated collagen tubes as a better matrix for peripheral nerve regeneration. Brain Res. 1046 (1-2), 55–67. 10.1016/j.brainres.2005.03.022 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alberti K. A., Xu Q. (2013). Slicing, stacking and rolling: fabrication of nanostructured collagen constructs from tendon sections. Adv. Healthc. Mat. 2 (6), 817–821. 10.1002/adhm.201200319 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alberti K. A., Hopkins A. M., Tang-Schomer M. D., Kaplan D. L., Xu Q. (2014). The behavior of neuronal cells on tendon-derived collagen sheets as potential substrates for nerve regeneration. Biomaterials 35 (11), 3551–3557. 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2013.12.082 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources