INTRODUCTION Peripheral nerve injuries most commonly result from blunt trauma or from penetrating missiles such as bullets or other objects, but are also associated with fractures and fracture dislocations. Therefore, crush injuries are more common than nerve transections. When nerve endings are unable to be rejoined without tension, a bridging section of nerve is used and two end-to-end sutures are performed. The crushed section of the nerve is cut, removed, and replaced by a nerve taken from another (less important) site, typically the sural nerve at the back of the leg 1-6 . Since the beginning of the 1990s, there have been several published studies reporting that Design of Porous Alginate Conduit using a Freeze Drying Technique for Neural Engineering ESMAEIL BIAZAR Department of Chemistry, Tonekabon Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon (Iran). *Corresponding author: E-mail: e.biazar@tonekaboniau.ac.ir (Received: June 30, 2011; Accepted: August 30, 2011) ABSTRACT Peripheral nerve injuries can lead to lifetime loss of function and permanent disfigurement. Different methods, such as conventional allograft procedures and use of biologic tubes present problems when used for damaged peripheral nerve reconstruction. Designed scaffolds comprised of natural and synthetic materials are now widely used in the reconstruction of damaged tissues. Porous alginate conduits were fabricated using a freeze drying technique and were investigated by SEM analysis. The results demonstrate that the alginate conduits have high interconnection and porosity, so they hold promise for use as neural tissue engineering scaffolds. Key words: Nerve conduits, Tissue engineering, Alginate, Ffreeze drying. natural biopolymers is satisfactory as a biomaterial for regeneration of various tissues and/or organs and that it is also useful for peripheral nerve regeneration. Alginate is one of the polysaccharides that formed hydrogel with to multiple cations such as Cu 2+ , Ca 2+ or Al 3+ , alginate is a biocompatible material and suitable for tissue engineering especially nerve regeneration 7-9 . Prang et al assessed the capacity of alginate gels to promote directed axonal regrowth in the injured mammalian central nervous system. Multivalent copper ions were used to create the alginate-based gels, diffusion of which into the sodium alginate layers created hexagonally- ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY www.orientjchem.org ISSN: 0970-020 X CODEN: OJCHEG 2011, Vol. 27, No. (3): Pg. 1029-1032 An International Open Free Access, Peer Reviewed Research Journal Est. 1984