Peripheral nerve regeneration following severe events is still a challenging topic in the regenerative medicine field, especially when nerve tissue is lost and direct suturing is not feasible. Given the limited success observed in currently available techniques, researchers have been putting efforts towards the development and optimization of these techniques, aiming at the best recovery chances for affected patients. The present work explores the combination of two methods of synthetic biomaterial tubes functionalization: the effect of electroconductive biomaterials and its association to an active cellular system. A tube-guide comprised of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) loaded with COOH-functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes (CNTs) was produced and studied alone or in combination with a cellular system of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) isolated from the umbilical cord Wharton's jelly (WJ). Tube-guides were assessed for in vitro cytocompatibility to the WJ MSCs and tested for in vivo performance in a neurotmesis rodent model. Animals were assigned to either PVA-CNTs, PVA-CNTs-MSCs, graft or end-to-end reconstruction groups and assessed after 20 weeks of regeneration. Structural analysis revealed overall more evident recovery in the PVA-CNTs-MSCs group, with significant differences to the cell-free group and similar to End-to-End repaired and Grafted groups. Surprisingly, PVA-CNTs-MSCs did no benefit neurogenic muscle atrophy recovery. Overall, the electrofucntionalized tube-guides post an interesting option for nerve reconstruction alone or in combination to MSCs cellular systems.
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