January 17, 2002	Thursday	Ziqa’ad 2, 1422

SINGAPORE, Jan 16: Tiny plaited tubes devised by an Indian researcher at the National University of Singapore may hold the promise of quick repair and recovery for patients with damaged or diseased nerves, it was reported on Wednesday.

Braided from multiple threads of a biodegradable fibre used to sew up wounds, the flexible structures form a scaffold than can help damaged nerve ends regenerate, The Straits Times said.

The work by Bini Thumbarathy Balakrishnan, a researcher from Kerala, India, has taken two years.

“Nerve cells don’t reproduce,” she was quoted as saying. “So if you need to bridge a gap, you have to encourage the nerve ends to grow and stretch across the space.”

The polylactic glycolic acid sheath is attached to the severed ends of a nerve so that it forms a bridge. Being flexible and permeable, it allows nutrients and fluids to flow freely.

In Bini’s experiments on mice, the nerves bridged a gap of 16 millimetres within three months. In a week, the nerve cells start growing minute fibres that stretch through the protective shell towards the other damaged end.

Other researchers have tried using similar scaffolds of plastic, but the report said these can break and are also unable to accommodate bends. They need to be removed surgically after the nerve endings regenerate.

Bini’s material can dissolve in the body. “You just have to leave it alone and let your body do the rest.”

The project needs to be tested on larger animals before being tried on humans.

The university is applying for United States and European patents.—dpa