An injectable, self-healing, electroconductive extracellular matrix-based hydrogel for enhancing tissue repair after traumatic spinal cord injury.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34466720.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.05.039 and PMC identifier 8379448.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Injectable biomaterial-based treatment is a promising strategy to enhance tissue repair after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) by bridging cavity spaces. However, there are limited reports of injectable, electroconductive hydrogels with self-healing properties being employed for the treatment of traumatic SCI. Hence, a natural extracellular matrix (ECM) biopolymer (chondroitin sulphate and gelatin)-based hydrogel containing polypyrrole, which imparted electroconductive properties, is developed for traumatic SCI repair. The resulting hydrogels showed mechanical (~928 Pa) and conductive properties (4.49 mS/cm) similar to natural spinal cord tissues. Moreover, the hydrogels exhibited shear-thinning and self-healing abilities, which allows it to be effectively injected into the injury site and to fill the lesion cavity to accelerate the tissue repair of traumatic SCI. <i>In vitro,</i> electroconductive ECM hydrogels promoted neuronal differentiation, enhanced axon outgrowth, and inhibited astrocyte differentiation. The electroconductive ECM hydrogel activated endogenous neural stem cell neurogenesis <i>in vivo</i> (n = 6), and induced myelinated axon regeneration into the lesion site via activation of the PI3K/AKT and MEK/ERK pathways, thereby achieving significant locomotor function restoration in rats with spinal cord injury (p < 0.001, compared to SCI group). Overall, the injectable self-healing electroconductive ECM-based hydrogels developed in this study are ideal biomaterials for treatment of traumatic SCI.