Hope for Peripheral Nerve Repair
Body
One-hour treatment of injured peripheral nerves with low-frequency electrical stimulation has been shown to enhance nerve recovery outcomes both in model organisms and in patients. Electrical stimulation mimics the calcium ion wave that propagates along a nerve at the time of injury, and hastens the axons’ ability to bridge the injury site and start the regeneration process.
Our lab’s prior studies have also found that local treatment with Botox enhances nerve recovery in injury, and increases in vitro neurite regrowth in cultured motor neurons.
This project combines these treatments in an effort to optimize a therapeutic regimen more effective than either treatment would be alone, utilizing models of nerve injury and a new bioresorbable implanted electrode to deliver both electric stimulation and drug therapy.
Lead lab members: Dom D’Andrea, Dr. Colin Franz
Collaborators: Dr. John Rogers, Dr. Sue Jordan, Jie Zhao, Hexia Guo.