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

Table 4 Stereological quantitative assessment

Group		Density	Total	Axon	Fiber	Myelin	M/d	D/d	d/D	Area
			number	diameter (d)	diameter (D)	thickness (M)			(g-ratio)	(mm2)
Group 1: PVA	Mean	42872	16596	2.95	3.56	0.31a	0.11a	1.23	0.82a	0.3862
(n = 7)	SD	4007	1741	0.25	0.28	0.03	0.01	0.02	0.01	0.0772
Group 2: PVA-CNTs	Mean	36261	16049	2.98	3.71	0.37a	0.14a	1.28	0.79a	0.4455
(n = 7)	SD	4267	1172	0.25	0.27	0.01	0.01	0.03	0.01	0.1856
Group 3: PVA-PPy	Mean	40289	22588	3.03a	3.70	0.33a	0.12a	1.24	0.81a	0.5720
(n = 7)	SD	2686	3157	0.21	0.23	0.02	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.2565
Group 4: Graft	Mean	37041	21939	2.58	3.56	0.49	0.21	1.41	0.71	0.5936
(n = 4)	SD	1214	1302	0.06	0.08	0.02	0.01	0.02	0.01	0.0694
Group 5: End-to-end	Mean	38762	22729	2.65	3.58	0.47	0.19	1.38	0.73	0.5990
(n = 5)	SD	1524	2308	0.14	0.16	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.2082
Group 6: PVA-CNTs-MSCs	Mean	43373	25731	2.44	3.34	0.45ce	0.21ce	1.41	0.72ce	0.5942
(n = 7)	SD	3881	3386	0.20	0.21	0.06	0.04	0.08	0.01	0.1940

Density, total number, axon diameter (d), fiber diameter (D), myelin thickness (M), ratio myelin thickness and axon diameter (M/d), ratio fiber diameter and axon diameter (D/d), ratio axon diameter and fiber diameter (d/D, g-ratio) of regenerated sciatic nerve fibers at week-20 after neurotmesis. Values are presented as mean ± SD. n corresponds to the number of animals within each experimental group. PVA: Polyvinyl alcohol; CNTs: Carbon nanotubes; PPy: Polypyrrole.

^aP < 0.05 vs PVA-CNT-MSC;

^cP > 0.05 vs End-to-End;

^eP > 0.05 vs Graft.