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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><img width="600" height="171" style="width:6.25in;height:1.7812in" id="_x0000_i1085" src="https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation1.png" alt="Dissertation Defense Announcement at the Cullen College of Engineering"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Pleiotrophin Promotes Axon Regeneration and Neuregulin1 Promotes Axon Sorting in Conduit Repair of Critical Nerve Gap Injuries</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Xingjian Gu</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">December 3, 2024; 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. (CST)<br>
Location: SERC 2013<br>
Zoom: <a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19*3ameeting_MDhkZDdjODYtYmQ0MS00NmRkLTk4NmMtMDk3YzQyMDA0NjVl*40thread.v2/0?context=*7b*22Tid*22*3a*22170bbabd-a2f0-4c90-ad4b-0e8f0f0c4259*22*2c*22Oid*22*3a*223b5f31a0-898b-4196-9131-53d7805458f6*22*7d__;JSUlJSUlJSUlJSUlJSUl!!LkSTlj0I!D7jtb0c8SlvBDbcyAQYpCBcLapPTgWdKMf0XZ0HBKjLHXtqCmd-sy76l8npDycKylwhJsNhKciLINybBXX2spUCfZU4$">
<span style="color:blue">https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDhkZDdjODYtYmQ0MS00NmRkLTk4NmMtMDk3YzQyMDA0NjVl%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22170bbabd-a2f0-4c90-ad4b-0e8f0f0c4259%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%223b5f31a0-898b-4196-9131-53d7805458f6%22%7d</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Chair:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Metin Akay, Ph.D.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Committee Members:</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><br>
Yasemin M. Akay, Ph.D. | Mario I. Romero-Ortega, Ph.D. | Yuncheng Du, Ph.D. | Tianfu Wu, Ph.D.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:16.5pt"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Abstract</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none">Significant challenges remain in the treatment of critical nerve gap injuries using
artificial nerve conduits. We previously reported successful axon regeneration across a 40 mm nerve gap using a biosynthetic nerve implant (BNI) with multi-luminal synergistic growth factor release. However, axon sorting, remyelination, and functional recovery
were limited. Neuregulin1 (NRG1) plays a significant role in regulating the proliferation and differentiation of Schwann cells (SCs) during development and after injury. We hypothesize that the release of NRG1 type III combined with pleiotrophin (PTN) in the
BNI will enhance axon growth, remyelination, and function of regenerated nerves across a critical gap. A rabbit 40 mm peroneal gap injury model was used to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of BNIs containing either NRG1, PTN, or PTN+NRG1 growth factor
release. We found that NRG1 treatment doubled the number of regenerated axons (1276±895) compared to empty controls (633±666) and PTN tripled this number (2270±989). NRG1 also significantly increased the number of SOX10+ Schwann cells in mid-conduit (20.42%±11.78%)
and reduced the number of abnormal axon bundles. The combination of PTN+NRG1 seemed to have increased axon diameter (1.70±1.06) vs control (1.21±0.77) (p<0.01), with 15.35% of axons above 3 µm, comparable to autograft. However, the total number of remyelinated
axons was not increased by the added NRG1 release, which correlated with absence of axonal NRG1 type III expression in the regenerated axons. Electrophysiological evaluation showed higher muscle force recruitment (23.8±16.0 mN vs 17.4±1.4 mN) and maximum evoked
compound motor action potential (353 μV vs 37 μV) in PTN-NRG1 group versus control, which correlated with the improvement in the toe spread recovery observed in PTN-NRG1 treated animals (0.64±0.02) vs control (0.50±0.01). These results revealed the need of
a combination of pro-regenerative and remyelinating growth factor combination therapy for the repair of critical nerve gaps.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><img border="0" width="600" height="82" style="width:6.25in;height:.8541in" id="_x0000_i1086" src="https://www.egr.uh.edu/sites/www.egr.uh.edu/files/enews/2022/images/dissertation2.png" alt="Engineered For What's Next"></span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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