Sreemoyee Chatterjee
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Written By: Sreemoyee Chatterjee | Updated : July 31, 2018 2:36 PM IST
For patients with damaged peripheral nervous system, this is great news. You can possibly be able to get back your sense of touch and movement control now, thanks to the researchers of University of Saskatchewan in Canada who have come up with tiny 3 D-printed scaffolds that can help in regrowth of nerve cells. 3 D-printed technology has been making breakthrough discoveries in medicine in the last few years and these scaffolds happen to be the latest addition of feather in the hat.
Poor diet, toxins, trauma and diseases like diabetes can affect and injure your peripheral nervous system taking away the power of movement and sense of touch.
While at present nerve autografts are used to treat these defects in the central nervous system where nerves from another part of the body are donated to repair the damaged part, doctors say, this process isn't adequate. According to them, not only are the donor sites for nerve repair limited but also restoring the damaged nerve's original functionality through a successful graft is difficult.
A combination of 3D printing and biotechnology can improve nerve generation and help doctors overcome these obstacles. The researchers have used the supporting cells in the nervous system called Schwann cells which can compel the nerve cells to grow properly. A 3D-printed hydrogel-based scaffold has been used to promote and guide regeneration of damaged nerve cells.
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