Polycaprolactone/multi-walled carbon nanotube nerve guidance conduits with tunable channels fabricated via novel extrusion-stretching method for peripheral nerve repair

Multi-channeled nerve guidance conduit is a prospective way to repair peripheral nerve injury, which is still difficult to be fabricated. A novel extrusion-stretching method was utilized in this study to produce multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) loaded multi-channeled nerve conduits with improved flexibility and versatility. The channels and geography of the conduits were tunable. The results showed that the mechanical properties of the multi-channeled nerve conduits were suitable for peripheral nerve restoration. MWCNTs increased the biocompatibility of the multi-channeled nerve conduits. This study proved that the MWCNTs loaded multi-channeled produced by extrusion-stretching method have great potential to repair peripheral nerve injury.