NANOTECHNOLOGY AND 3D BIOPRINTING FOR NEURAL TISSUE REGENERATION - 3D Bioprinting and Nanotechnology in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine - page 303

FIGURE 14.2
A sample of blood vessel sheathed self-assembling peptide neural conduit bridging the injured sciatic nerve at the
time of (A) immediate after surgery and (B) 16 weeks postimplantation. Arrows indicate the sutured connections.
NF200-labeling axons regenerated images in (C) the self-assembling nanofiber filled conduit and (D) empty conduit
groups. (E) Axon regeneration comparisons at proximal, middle, and distal part in two neural conduits. Images are
adopted from Zhan et al. (2013) .
requires that self-assembly occur in a relatively tender environment. In a recent study, Liu et al. showed
K 2 (QL) 6 K 2 (QL6) self-assembling scaffolds attenuated post-traumatic inflammation and glial scar for-
mation in vitro and in vivo ( Liu et al., 2013 ). Unlike most peptides, QL6 is able to self-assemble into
b -sheets at neutral pH, which significantly reduced post-traumatic apoptosis, inflammation, and astro-
gliosis after injection within a clip compression spinal cord injury site. In vitro experiments revealed
that a QL6 scaffold promoted neuronal differentiation, suppressed astrocytic development, increased
conduction velocity of axons, reduced refractoriness, and improved high-frequency conduction.