Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering Commons^™

Composition-Structure-Property Relationships For Experimental Composite Nerve Guidance Conduits, Xiaofang Zhang

Theses

Many Nerve Guidance Conduits (NGCs) have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an alternative to nerve autografting for guiding peripheral nerve regeneration. However these materials offer little therapeutic potential for favourable axon growth environment, and difficulty in balancing the mechanical properties and the degradation rate of the implanted material is also a contemporary challenge. This project involved the design of experimental composite NGCs comprising glass particles and Pluronic FI27 in the copolymer (poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid)) and examined the composition-structure-property relationships for such materials. Three glasses (0.5Si-(x) Na-0.2Ca-0.13Zn-(0.17-x) Ce) (0.0.04 > x > 0.14) were produced. Glasses were characterised using …