Abstract
Severe peripheral nerve injuries are frequent, occurring in approximately 3% of trauma victims. They require surgical intervention, but recovery can be poor. Alternative therapeutic strategies are needed and evidence suggests providing appropriate guidance cues and living cells in a therapeutic setting improves repair outcome. Human epidermal neural crest stem cells (hEPI-NCSC) offer an attractive source of therapeutic autologous cells, but to date have not been used in peripheral nerve tissue engineering. Through a combination of tissue engineering and computational modelling, the project aims to provide new knowledge and understanding about the behavior of these novel cells in artificial tissues to underpin future applications in nerve repair research.
References
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