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Peripheral nerve injury is a serious problem affecting signiifcantly patients’ life. Autografts are the“gold standard” used to repair the injury gap, however, only 50% of patients fully recover from the trauma. Artiifcial conduits are a valid alternative to repairing peripheral nerve. They aim at conifning the nerve environment throughout the regeneration process, and providing guidance to axon outgrowth. Biocompatible materials have been carefully designed to reduce inlfamma-tion and scar tissue formation, but modiifcations of the inner lumen are still required in order to optimise the scaffolds. Biomicking the native neural tissue with extracellular matrix ifllers or coatings showed great promises in repairing longer gaps and extending cell survival. In addition, extracellular matrix molecules provide a platform to further bind growth factors that can be released in the system over time. Alternatively, conduit ifllers can be used for cell transplantation at the injury site, reducing the lag time required for endogenous Schwann cells to proliferate and take part in the regeneration process. This review provides an overview on the importance of ex-tracellular matrix molecules in peripheral nerve repair.
