Skip to main content
Log in

Immunophilin FK506 loaded in chitosan guide promotes peripheral nerve regeneration

  • Original Research Paper
  • Published:
Biotechnology Letters Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Immunophilin ligand FK506 has been treated as adjunct therapy for nerve repair due to its potent neurotrophic and neuroprotective actions. It was hypothesized that FK506 releasing from biodegradable chitosan guide provided better nerve regenerative response than the guide with no FK506. The drug was entrapped in the semi-permeable wall of chitosan guide with the drug-loading of 647 μg/g. Rat sciatic nerve defect model treated with FK506-releasing chitosan guide showed more mature appearance of myelinated fibers 8 weeks after surgery; furthermore, the motor functional reinnervation occurred, the amplitude and velocity of compound muscle action potentials reached 60% and 73% with respect to the normal. Thus, FK506-releasing chitosan guide should be acted as a long-lasting delivery device of immunosuppressive and neuroregenerative agent for peripheral nerve repair.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alluin O, Wittmann C, Marqueste T et al (2009) Functional recovery after peripheral nerve injury and implantation of a collagen guide. Biomaterials 30:363–373

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chavez-Delgado ME, Gomez-Pinedo U, Feria-Velasco A et al (2005) Ultrastructural analysis of guided nerve regeneration using progesterone- and pregnenolone-loaded chitosan prostheses. J Biomed Mater Res 74B:589–600

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen B, Song YX, Liu ZJ (2009) Promotion of nerve regeneration in peripheral nerve by short-course FK506 after end-to-side neurorrhaphy. J Surg Res 152:303–310

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheng MY, Cao WL, Gao Y et al (2003) Studies on nerve cell affinity of biodegradable modified chitosan films. J Biomater Sci Polym Ed 14:1155–1167

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chunasuwankul R, Ayrout C, Dereli Z et al (2002) Low dose discontinued FK506 treatment enhances peripheral nerve regeneration. Int Surg 87:274–278

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ciardelli G, Chiono V (2006) Materials for peripheral nerve regeneration. Macromol Biosci 6:13–26

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Freier T, Koh HS, Kazazian K, Shoichet MS (2005) Controlling cell adhesion and degradation of chitosan films by N-acetylation. Biomaterials 26:5872–5878

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gold BG, Katoh K, Storm-Dickerson T (1995) The immunosuppressant FK506 increases the rate of axonal regeneration in rat sciatic nerve. J Neurosci 15:7509–7516

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang MR, Zhuge XM, Yang YM et al (2009) The promotion of peripheral nerve regeneration by chitooligosaccharides in the rat nerve crush injury model. Neurosci Lett 454:239–243

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lyons WE, George EB, Dawson TM et al (1994) Immunosuppressant FK506 promotes neurite outgrowth in cultures of PC12 cells and sensory ganglia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91:3191–3195

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Navarro X, Udina E, Ceballos D, Gold BD (2001) Effects of FK506 on nerve regeneration and reinnervation after graft or tube repair of long gaps. Muscle Nerve 24:905–915

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sakurai E, Nozake M, Okabe K et al (2003) Scleral plug of biodegradable polymers containing tacrolimus (FK506) for experimental uveitis. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 44:4845–4852

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sosa I, Reyes O, Kuffler DP (2005) Immunosuppressants: neuroprotection and promoting neurological recovery following peripheral nerve and spinal cord lesions. Exp Neurol 195:7–15

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Udina E, Rodriguez FJ, Verdu E et al (2004) FK506 enhances regeneration of axons across long peripheral nerve gaps repaired with collagen guides seeded with allogeneic Schwann cells. Glia 47:120–129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yang YM, Ding F, Wu J et al (2007) Development and evaluation of silk fibroin-based nerve grafts used for peripheral nerve regeneration. Biomaterials 28:5526–5535

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Aihua Xu for assistance in manuscript preparation and Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Osaka, Japan) for the generous gift of FK506. This study was supported by Knowledge Innovation Project of The Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJCX2-YW-210-02) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20736006).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiaojun Ma.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

10529_2010_287_MOESM1_ESM.docx

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 25 kb) Supplementary Figure Fourier transformation infrared spectra of (a) FK506, (b) chitosan guide and (c) FK506-loaded chitosan guide; chitosan showed characteristic band of amide-I (1655 cm−1) and amino (1599 cm−1) in the spectra of (b) and (c), and there was no shift for other bands such as 1159 cm−1 for C–O–C stretch and C–N stretch, 1026 cm−1 for C–O skeletal vibration. It could be presented that the structure of chitosan guide does not change significantly with or without FK506

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Li, X., Wang, W., Wei, G. et al. Immunophilin FK506 loaded in chitosan guide promotes peripheral nerve regeneration. Biotechnol Lett 32, 1333–1337 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-010-0287-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10529-010-0287-8

Keywords

Navigation