Evaluation of biodegradable electric conductive tube-guides and mesenchymal stem cells

Table 2 Withdrawal reflex latency

WRL		Time
		T0	T1	T2	T4	T6	T8	T10	T12	T14	T16	T18	T20
Group 1: PVA	Mean	3.71	10.95	10.81	10.68	9.74	10.23	9.85	8.15	7.78	9.99	7.88	6.98a
(n = 7)	SD	0.93	1.45	2.04	2.26	2.89	2.50	2.81	2.70	3.50	2.49	3.72	3.72
Group 2: PVA-CNTs	Mean	5.36	9.91	8.98	7.50	8.40	9.48	9.51	6.92	6.60	8.43	5.88	5.83a
(n = 7)	SD	1.50	3.57	3.65	3.36	3.22	3.41	3.01	3.49	3.41	3.40	3.09	2.80
Group 3: PVA-PPy	Mean	4.86	11.42	9.37	7.10	7.85	8.82	9.72	6.87	7.02	7.09	6.06	7.02a
(n = 7)	SD	1.69	1.54	3.31	2.51	3.40	2.53	2.35	3.50	3.92	3.23	4.43	3.89
Group 4: Graft	Mean	4.53	12.00	10.14	11.17	11.50	10.67	10.83	11.16	9.81	10.46	9.92	9.68a
(n = 4)	SD	1.14	0.00	3.72	1.66	1.01	2.65	2.35	1.27	2.84	1.78	1.82	1.88
Group 5: End-to-End	Mean	4.28	12.00	11.85	12.00	10.22	10.45	8.78	10.48	9.26	8.57	9.82	7.50
(n = 5)	SD	0.86	0.00	0.34	0.00	2.50	2.12	2.22	2.86	3.07	0.98	2.02	0.87
Group 6: PVA-CNTs-MSCs	Mean	3.93	12.00	8.89	9.23	9.30	9.90	7.65	7.41	10.06	8.33	8.28	8.02a
(n = 7)	SD	0.86	0.00	2.36	1.63	2.72	2.66	2.51	2.33	1.85	2.86	2.34	1.20

Values in seconds were obtained performing withdrawal reflex latency (WRL) test to evaluate the nociceptive function. This test has been performed pre-operatively (week-0), at week 1, week 2 and every 2 week after the surgical procedure until week-20, when the animals were sacrificed for morphological analysis. Results are presented as mean and standard error of the mean (SD). n corresponds to the number of animals within each experimental group. PVA: Polyvinyl alcohol; CNTs: Carbon nanotubes; PPy: Polypyrrole; MSCs: Mesenchymal stem cells.

^aP < 0.05 vs End-to-End.