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Treatment of peripheral nerve lesions remains a major challenge due to poor functional recovery; hence, ongoing research efforts strive to enhance peripheral nerve repair. In this study, we aimed to establish three-dimensional tissue-engineered bands of Büngner constructs by subjecting Schwann cells (SCs) embedded in fibrin hydrogels to mechanical stimulation. We show for the first time that the application of strain induces (i) longitudinal alignment of SCs resembling bands of Büngner, and (ii) the expression of a pronounced repair SC phenotype as evidenced by upregulation of BDNF, NGF, and p75 NTR . Furthermore, we show that mechanically aligned SCs provide physical guidance for migrating axons over several millimeters in vitro in a co-culture model with rat dorsal root ganglion explants. Consequently, these constructs hold great therapeutic potential for transplantation into patients and might also provide a physiologically relevant in vitro peripheral nerve model for drug screening or investigation of pathologic or regenerative processes., Competing Interests: The author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: CH and ATW disclose a potential conflict of interest related to the research presented in this study. They have submitted a patent application for a technology that is related to a component used in the research described in this paper., (© The Author(s) 2024.)

Each process step in the manufacture of biological products requires expensive resources and reduces total process productivity. Since downstream processing of biologicals is the main cost driver, process intensification is a persistent topic during the entire product life cycle. We present here one approach for the intensification of bioprocesses by applying on-column virus inactivation using solvent/detergent (S/D) treatment during ion-exchange chromatography. The established purification process of a recombinant protein was used as a model to compare key process parameters (i.e., product yield, specific activity, impurity clearance) of the novel approach to the standard process protocol. Additional wash and incubation steps with and without S/D-containing buffers were introduced to ensure sufficient contact time to effectively eliminate enveloped viruses and to significantly decrease the amount of S/D reagents. Comparison of key process parameters demonstrated equivalent process performance. To assess the viral clearance capacity of the novel approach, XMuLV was spiked as model virus to the chromatographic load and all resulting fractions were analyzed by TCID 50 and RT-qPCR. Data indicates the inactivation capability of on-column virus inactivation even at 10% of the nominal S/D concentration, although the mechanism of viral clearance needs further investigation., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All authors were employees of Baxalta Innovations GmbH (part of Takeda) or Takeda Manufacturing Austria AG at the time of this study. Andreas Flicker, Christian Fiedler, Maria R. Farcet, Martin Purtscher, and Thomas R. Kreil are Takeda stock owners. Daniel Polasek is currently employee of Octapharma Pharmazeutika Produktionsges.m.b.H (Oberlaaer Straβe 235, 1100 Vienna, Austria)., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)