Peripheral Nerve Research

Project 1: Functional nerve recovery enhanced with exosome-treated allograft

The repair of nerve gaps remains a challenge for the peripheral nerve surgeon. Tissue structure and microenvironment are crucial for axonal regeneration in peripheral nerve repair. Exosome-based cell-free therapy may be an appealing strategy for tissue regeneration. In this project, we administered a sciatic nerve injury in a typical rodent model to compare the combination of a plasma-derived purified exosome product (PEP) to decellularized nerve allograft to autograft in nerve regeneration.

Our findings demonstrate that decellularized nerve allograft treated with PEP increased neuroregenerative gene expression and improved nerve function compared with the nerve allograft. This approach can promote and accelerate nerve regeneration within allografts, creating results that are comparable to the nerve autograft.

Principal investigator: Steven L. Moran, M.D.

Project 2: Purified exosome product for voltmetric muscle loss

In this project, our lab is developing a cell-free exosome biotherapeutics product to enhance rotator cuff healing. Aim 1 is to find the optimal concentration of purified exosome product with TISSEEL that will have the highest efficacy in a rodent primary myoblast culture and to understand the release profile of the formulation. Aim 2 is to evaluate the muscle regenerative and functional recovery effects of TISSEEL-PEP compared with treatment with TISSEEL-PRP in a rodent model of voltmetric muscle loss. This project is funded by Regenerative Medicine Minnesota.

Principal investigator: Steven L. Moran, M.D.