Department of Cancer Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Hokkaido University, N15, W7, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan.
Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD), Hokkaido University, N21, W10, Sapporo, 001-0021, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2023 Feb 14;13(1):2233. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-28870-z.
Neural regeneration is extremely difficult to achieve. In traumatic brain injuries, the loss of brain parenchyma volume hinders neural regeneration. In this study, neuronal tissue engineering was performed by using electrically charged hydrogels composed of cationic and anionic monomers in a 1:1 ratio (C1A1 hydrogel), which served as an effective scaffold for the attachment of neural stem cells (NSCs). In the 3D environment of porous C1A1 hydrogels engineered by the cryogelation technique, NSCs differentiated into neuroglial cells. The C1A1 porous hydrogel was implanted into brain defects in a mouse traumatic damage model. The VEGF-immersed C1A1 porous hydrogel promoted host-derived vascular network formation together with the infiltration of macrophages/microglia and astrocytes into the gel. Furthermore, the stepwise transplantation of GFP-labeled NSCs supported differentiation towards glial and neuronal cells. Therefore, this two-step method for neural regeneration may become a new approach for therapeutic brain tissue reconstruction after brain damage in the future.
神经再生极其困难。在创伤性脑损伤中，脑实质体积的丧失阻碍了神经再生。在这项研究中，通过使用带正电荷和带负电荷的单体以 1:1 比例组成的荷电气凝胶（C1A1 水凝胶）进行神经元组织工程，该水凝胶作为神经干细胞（NSCs）附着的有效支架。在通过冷冻凝胶技术工程化的多孔 C1A1 水凝胶的 3D 环境中，NSCs 分化为神经胶质细胞。将 C1A1 多孔水凝胶植入小鼠创伤性损伤模型的脑缺损中。浸入 VEGF 的 C1A1 多孔水凝胶促进了宿主来源的血管网络形成，同时巨噬细胞/小胶质细胞和星形胶质细胞渗透到凝胶中。此外，GFP 标记的 NSCs 的逐步移植支持向神经胶质和神经元细胞的分化。因此，这种两步法神经再生可能成为未来脑损伤后治疗性脑组织重建的新方法。
