Abstract: Objective To observe the effect of the chitosan tube combined with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on repairing sciaticnerve injury in rats. Methods 25 adult Wistar rats were divided into modeled sham-operated group (n=10), lesion control group (n=5) andexperiment group (n=10). All of them were operated with a 5-mm sciatic nerve exposed on the left. The lesion control group was intervenedwith the sciatic nerve cut off. The experiment group was intervened with bFGF-chitosan tubes bridged into nerve stumps. The movement behaviorwas observed, the regeneration of the injury nerves and the distal target muscle were detected by morphological staining. Results 5weeks after operation, the movement function of the experiment group was apparently recovered and gaps on the sciatic nerve were connectedby the regeneration nerve in this group and NF and S-100 immunoreactive fibers were observed in regeneration nerve. Masson's trichromestain showed that the target muscle was close to the level of sham-operated group in morphology and density. Conclusion The chitosantube combined with bFGF can repair the peripheral nerve injury effectively and improve the movement function of rats.

Key words: peripheral nerve injury, artificial nerve graft, nerve regeneration, basic fibroblast growth factor, chitosan, function recovery