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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1431420

Co-culturing neural and bone mesenchymal stem cells in photosensitive hydrogel enhances spinal cord injury repair

Provisionally accepted
Jianzhong Bai Jianzhong Bai 1,2*Guoping Liu Guoping Liu 3Yang Gao Yang Gao 2*Xishan Zhang Xishan Zhang 2*Guoqi Niu Guoqi Niu 4Hongtao Zhang Hongtao Zhang 1*
  • 1 The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Tai’an, Shandong Province, China
  • 3 Second Affiliated Hospital of University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan Province, China
  • 4 Second Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, Bengbu, Anhui Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In mammalian species, neural tissues cannot regenerate following severe spinal cord injury (SCI), for which stem cell transplantation is a promising treatment.Neural stem cells (NSCs) have the potential to repair SCI; however, in unfavourable microenvironments, transplanted NSCs mainly differentiate into astrocytes rather than neurons. In contrast, bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) promote the differentiation of NSCs into neurons and regulate inflammatory responses. Owing to their easily controllable mechanical properties and similarities to neural tissue, gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) hydrogels offer remarkable cell biocompatibility and regulate the differentiation of NSCs. Therefore, in this study, we propose co-culturing NSCs and BMSCs within low-modulus GelMA hydrogel scaffolds to promote regeneration following SCI. In vitro comparisons revealed that the viability, proliferation, migration, and neuron differentiation capacity of cells in these low-modulus scaffolds exhibit substantially superior performance compared to those in high-modulus hydrogel scaffolds. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to report that NSCs/BMSCs co-culture implants can remarkably enhance motor function recovery in SCI rats, reduce the area of spinal cord cavities, stimulate neuron regeneration, and suppress scar tissue formation. Thus, this hydrogel system loaded with co-cultured cells represents a promising therapeutic approach for SCI repair.

    Keywords: neural stem cell, bone mesenchymal stem cells, co-culture, photocrosslinkable gelatin hydrogel, spinal cord injury

    Received: 11 May 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bai, Liu, Gao, Zhang, Niu and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Jianzhong Bai, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu Province, China
    Yang Gao, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Tai’an, 271000, Shandong Province, China
    Xishan Zhang, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Shandong First Medical University, Tai’an, 271000, Shandong Province, China
    Hongtao Zhang, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, 215006, Jiangsu Province, China

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