Engineering 3-D bio-printed scaffolds to regenerate damaged peripheral nervous systems

In the last decade or so, 3-D printing has experienced a surge in popularity as the technology has become more precise and accessible. Now, researchers from the University of Saskatchewan are looking at how we can use 3-D printing to help damaged nervous systems to regrow. 

The peripheral nervous system, which controls the body beyond the brain and the spinal cord, can be damaged by poor diet, toxins, and trauma. It can also be damaged by diseases such as diabetes, which affects about 422 million people worldwide, and 3.4 million people in Canada.

Damage to the peripheral nervous system can affect our sense of touch and our motor control. The current standard for treating large gaps in the nervous system due to damage is nerve autografts, where donor nerves from another part of the body are used to repair the damaged parts.

However, this process is not perfect; there are limited donor sites for nerve repair, and even successful grafts often only restore a portion of the nerve's original functionality. In order to improve nerve regeneration, a combination of 3-D printing and biotechnology may be the answer.

Liqun Ning, a postdoctoral fellow in the Tissue Engineering Research Group led by Daniel Chen at the University of Saskatchewan, has spent the last few years investigating how 3-D bio-printing can be used to help with nerve cell regeneration. His solution involves combining engineering and biomedicine in order to create scaffolds that can guide the growth of nerve cells across large damaged areas.