Tissue-engineered conduit promotes sciatic nerve regeneration following radiation-induced injury as monitored by magnetic resonance imaging

A single fraction dose of 40 Gy can be used to establish a rat model of sciatic nerve injury. Longitudinal electrophysiological examination and MR neurography are useful to evaluate the post-irradiation sciatic neuropathy. The rats with tissue-engineered conduits implantation showed some improvement of lower limb function, accompanied by a normalization of (T1W/T2W) MR signal.