Animal models in peripheral nerve transection studies: a systematic review on study design and outcomes assessment.
Systematic Review
Peripheral nerve injury regeneration studies using animal models are crucial to different pre-clinical therapeutic approaches efficacy evaluation whatever the surgical technique explored. A 944 articles systematic review on ‘peripheral nerve injury in animal models’ over the last 9 years was carried out. It was found that 91% used rodents, and only 9% employed large animals. Different nerves are studied, with generated gaps (10,78 mm) and methods applied for regeneration evaluation uniformed. Sciatic nerve was the most used (88%), followed by median and facial nerves (2.6%), significantly different. There has not been a significant scale-up of the testing to large animal models (anatomically/physiologically closer to humans), allowing an improvement in translational medicine for clinical cases.
