Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Peripheral Nerve Internal Fascicular Groups

A body of evidence indicates that peripheral nerves have an extraordinary yet limited capacity to regenerate after an injury. Peripheral nerve injuries have confounded professionals in this field, from neuroscientists to neurologists, plastic surgeons, and the scientific community. Despite all the efforts, full functional recovery is still seldom. The inadequate results attained with the "gold standard" autograft procedure still encourage a dynamic and energetic research around the world for establishing good performing tissue engineered alternative grafts. Resourcing to nerve guidance conduits, a variety of methods have been experimentally used to bridge peripheral nerve gaps of limited size, up to 30-40 mm in length, in humans. Herein, we aim to summarize the fundamentals related to peripheral nerve anatomy and overview the challenges and scientific evidences related to peripheral nerve injury and repair mechanisms. The most relevant reports dealing with the use of both synthetic and naturalbased biomaterials used in tissue engineering strategies when treatment of nerve injuries is envisioned are also discussed in depth, along with the state-of-the-art approaches in this field.

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Section: The Possibility Of Patient-specific Nerve Repair and Ngcsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fundamentals and Current Strategies for Peripheral Nerve Repair and Regeneration

Carvalho

Reis

Oliveira

2020

Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology

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“…e internal structure of the peripheral nerve and the morphology of the nerve fascicles are complicated [29]. It was proven in a previous study by our team that the nerve fascicles change in position and quantity within a distance of 0.25∼5 mm, and this is accompanied by the di erentiation and combination of the functional nature of the nerve [30]. e understanding of peripheral nerves is limited at the technical level and the amount of data studied.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Customized Scaffold Design Based on Natural Peripheral Nerve Fascicle Characteristics for Biofabrication in Tissue Regeneration

Yao

Yan

Qiu

et al. 2019

BioMed Research International

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Objective. The use of a biofabrication nerve scaffold, which mimics the nerve microstructure, as an alternative for autologous nerve transplantation is a promising strategy for treating peripheral nerve defects. This study aimed to design a customized biofabrication scaffold model with the characteristics of human peripheral nerve fascicles. Methods. We used Micro-MRI technique to obtain different nerve fascicles. A full-length 28 cm tibial nerve specimen was obtained and was divided into 14 two-centimetre nerve segments. 3D models of the nerve fascicles were obtained by three-dimensional reconstruction after image segmentation. The central line of the nerve fascicles was fitted, and the aggregation of nerve fascicles was analysed quantitatively. The nerve scaffold was designed by simulating the clinical nerve defect and extracting information from the acquired nerve fascicle data; the scaffold design was displayed by 3D printing to verify the accuracy of the model. Result. The microstructure of the sciatic nerve, tibial nerve, and common peroneal nerve in the nerve fascicles could be obtained by three-dimensional reconstruction. The number of cross fusions of tibial nerve fascicles from proximal end to distal end decreased gradually. By designing the nerve graft in accordance with the microstructure of the nerve fascicles, the 3D printed model demonstrated that the two ends of the nerve defect can be well matched. Conclusion. The microstructure of the nerve fascicles is complicated and changeable, and the spatial position of each nerve fascicle and the long segment of the nerve fascicle aggregation show great changes at different levels. Under the premise of the stability of the existing imaging techniques, a large number of scanning nerve samples can be used to set up a three-dimensional database of the peripheral nerve fascicle microstructure, integrating the gross imaging information, and provide a template for the design of the downstream nerve graft model.

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“…We quantified the performance of each step of our process in order to establish a standard for future explorations of this technology. Furthermore, except for one group that created their own visualization software (18), others used commercial reconstruction software to generate their models, reducing the accessibility to their methods(16,17,19,29). Every step of our method was implemented in MATLAB, which both simplified the processing pipeline and reduced the barrier to entry.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automatic Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Fascicles in Peripheral Nerves from Histological Images

Tovbis

Zariffa

Agur

et al. 2020

Preprint

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AbstractComputational studies can be used to support the development of peripheral nerve interfaces, but currently use simplified models of nerve anatomy, which may impact the applicability of simulation results. To better quantify and model neural anatomy across the population, we have developed an algorithm to automatically reconstruct accurate peripheral nerve models from histological cross-sections. We acquired serial median nerve cross-sections from human cadaveric samples, staining one set with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and the other using immunohistochemistry (IHC) with anti-neurofilament antibody. We developed a four-step processing pipeline involving registration, fascicle detection, segmentation, and reconstruction. We compared the output of each step to manual ground truths, and additionally compared the final models to commonly used extrusions, via intersection-over-union (IOU). Fascicle detection and segmentation required the use of a neural network and active contours in H&E-stained images, but only simple image processing methods for IHC-stained images. Reconstruction achieved an IOU of 0.42±0.07 for H&E and 0.37±0.16 for IHC images, with errors partially attributable to global misalignment at the registration step, rather than poor reconstruction. This work provides a quantitative baseline for fully automatic construction of peripheral nerve models. Our models provided fascicular shape and branching information that would be lost via extrusion.

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Three-dimensional Reconstruction of Peripheral Nerve Internal Fascicular Groups

Cited by 22 publications

References 42 publications

Fundamentals and Current Strategies for Peripheral Nerve Repair and Regeneration

Fundamentals and Current Strategies for Peripheral Nerve Repair and Regeneration

Customized Scaffold Design Based on Natural Peripheral Nerve Fascicle Characteristics for Biofabrication in Tissue Regeneration

Automatic Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of Fascicles in Peripheral Nerves from Histological Images

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