Biomimetic hydrogels direct spinal progenitor cell differentiation and promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

Biomimetic hydrogels direct spinal progenitor cell differentiation and promote functional recovery after spinal cord injury.

J Neural Eng. 2018 Jan 05;:

Authors: Geissler SA, Sabin AL, Besser RR, Gooden OM, Shirk BD, Nguyen QM, Khaing ZZ, Schmidt CE

Abstract
Demyelination that results from disease or traumatic injury, such as spinal cord injury (SCI), can have a devastating effect on neural function and recovery. Many researchers are examining treatments to minimize demyelination by improving oligodendrocyte availability in vivo. Transplantation of stem and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells is a promising option, however, trials are plagued by undirected differentiation [1]. Here we introduce a biomaterial that has been optimized to direct the differentiation of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) toward oligodendrocytes as a cell delivery vehicle after SCI. Our results demonstrate that we can achieve a significant increase in oligodendrocyte differentiation of NPCs compared to standard culture conditions using a three-component biomaterial composed of collagen, hyaluronic acid, and laminin that has mechanical properties matched to those of neonatal neural tissue. Additionally, SCI rats with hydrogel transplants, with and without NPCs, showed functional recovery. Animals transplanted with hydrogels with NPCs showed significantly increased functional recovery over 6 weeks compared to the media control group. The three-component hydrogel presented here has the potential to provide cues to direct differentiation in vivo to encourage regeneration of the central nervous system.

PMID: 29303112 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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