Tiam Mana Saffari

125 THE LOCAL MICROENVIRONMENT OF NERVE ALLOGRAFTS AFTER ANGIOGENESIS 6 CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates that addition of a pedicled adipofascial SIEF f lap to the nerve allograft increases vascularity when compared to allografts only and alters immunotrophic factors locally and in peripheral blood. Results obtained from peripheral blood, gene expression profiles and immunohistochemistry at both short- and long-term suggest that surgical angiogenesis alters the cellular environment of processed nerve allografts to potentially enhance nerve regeneration. Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have neither known competing financial interests nor personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the reported work. Acknowledgments We would like to thank Michael J. Hansen for his technical assistance (flowcytometry) and the observers Roman Thaler, Farzaneh Khani and Meiwand Bedar, who together with Amr Badreldin scored the immunohistochemical sections. We also thank Patricia F. Friedrich for technical assistance during surgery, as well as other members of the van Wijnen laboratory for stimulating discussions and sharing ideas.