Nerve allografts, which are nerves transplanted between genetically non-identical individuals of the same species, have been studied in experimental and
clinical works and seem to be an effective method for nerve reconstruction. We aim to evaluate the effects of VEGF-secreting scaffold holding fibroblasts
transduced with an adenovirus on the survival of facial nerve allografts in a model developed in pigs. We operated on 10 white large pigs using one of the
following surgical protocols: protocol I, 5 subjects receiving nerve allografts wrapped with a fibrin scaffold holding fibroblasts; and protocol II, 5 subjects
with nerve allografts wrapped in a scaffold containing fibroblasts transduced with adenovirus encoding VEGF 156. Statistically significant differences
were found by the Mann–Whitney test between protocols I and II for the number of neurofilaments, the number of vessels per field, the number of nerve
bundles, and the percentage of neural tissue, with the scores higher for protocol II subjects (p= 0.008 for the above variables). There were no differences
in the diameter of the nerve between the protocols. When Student’s t was used, the number of neurofilaments and the percentage of neural tissue were
significantly different (p= 0.002). This experiment showed that in pigs receiving a 4-cm facial nerve allograft, conditioning with adenovirus-mediated
VEGF-secreting heterologous fibroblasts embedded in a fibrin scaffold, improved axonal passage throughout the nerve allograft and helped to maintain
the continuity and structure of the new facial nerve.
Author(s): Lasso JM, Prieto Montalvo J, Deleyto E, Castellano M, Perez Cano R, and Fernandez-Santos ME