Spinal cord repair by means of tissue engineered scaffolds

Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to devastating and permanent loss of -neurological function, affecting all levels below the site of trauma. The injured adult spinal cord has little self-regenerative capacity due to multifactorial reasons. Tissue engineered scaffolds have emerged as a promising approach to promote regeneration of the damaged spinal cord by providing guidance to the regrowing axons. Integration of different therapeutic strategies with scaffolds has achieved substantial reestablishment of functional neural connectivity, with some strategies now being considered for clinical trials. This chapter presents a comprehensive discussion on the development of scaffold-based strategies currently under investigation for spinal cord tissue regeneration. First is a discussion of spinal cord structure, the pathophysiology of spinal cord injury, and various SCI animal models for experimental studies. Second is a detailed literature review and discussion of scaffold biomaterials and widely used techniques for scaffold fabrication in the context of SCI repair. This chapter then examines various therapeutic strategies currently used to repair SCI, including cell therapy, extracellular matrix protein/peptide modification, gene therapy, and molecular therapy.