Tianjin Occupational Diseases Precaution and Therapeutic Hospital 1 article published in JoVE Medicine Taking the Next Step: a Neural Coaptation Orthotopic Hind Limb Transplant Model to Maximize Functional Recovery in Rat Feibo Zheng1,3, Andy Tully1,2, Kyle M Koss1, Xiaomin Zhang1, Longhui Qiu1, Jiao-Jing Wang1, Bilal A Naved1,4, David Z Ivancic1, James M Mathew1, Jason A Wertheim1, Zheng Jenny Zhang1 1Comprehensive Transplant Center and Department of Surgery, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, 2Department of Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago, 3Department of Surgery, Tianjin Occupational Diseases Precaution and Therapeutic Hospital, 4Department of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University This protocol presents a robust, reproducible model of vascularized composite allotransplant (VCA) geared toward simultaneous study of immunology and functional recovery. The time invested in meticulous technique in a right mid-thigh hind limb orthotopic transplant with hand sewn vascular anastomoses and neural coaptation yields the ability to study functional recovery.
