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REVIEW article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Biomaterials
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1576524
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Glycopeptide Hydrogel for Tissue EngineeringView all 4 articles
Multidimensional Exploration of Hydrogels as Biological Scaffolds for Spinal Cord Regeneration: Mechanisms and Future Perspectives
Provisionally accepted- Department of Rehabilitation, Jiangsu Province People's Hospital and Nanjing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing, China
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Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe condition that frequently leads to permanent disabilities and neurological dysfunction. Its progression is driven by a multifaceted pathophysiology, encompassing direct trauma, secondary injury cascades, and intricate cellular and molecular responses. While current therapies focus on alleviating symptoms and restoring functionality, achieving effective neural regeneration in the spinal cord continues to be a significant challenge.Hydrogels, recognized for their exceptional biocompatibility, conductivity, and injectability, have shown great potential as advanced scaffolds to support neuronal and axonal regeneration. Recently, these materials have attracted significant interest in the field of SCI rehabilitation research. This review concludes recent progress in hydrogel-based strategies for SCI rehabilitation, emphasizing their distinct properties, underlying mechanisms, and integration with bioactive molecules, stem cells, and complementary biomaterials. Hydrogels foster neuronal regeneration by providing a tailored microenvironment, while advanced features such as self-repair, electrical conductivity, and controlled drug release significantly enhance their therapeutic potential in experimental models. This review explores hydrogel technologies and their applications, underscoring their potential to address the challenges of SCI treatment and paving the way for future clinical implementation.
Keywords: spinal cord injury, Hydrogels, neural regeneration, spinal cord rehabilitation, immune microenvironment spinal cord injury, Hydrogel, immune microenvironment
Received: 14 Feb 2025; Accepted: 08 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Han, Jiao, Gong, Li, Zhao and Lu. 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:
Jiao Jiao, Department of Rehabilitation, Jiangsu Province People's Hospital and Nanjing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing, China
Xiao Lu, Department of Rehabilitation, Jiangsu Province People's Hospital and Nanjing Medical University First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.