Spinal cord injury (SCI) usually arises from a sudden, traumatic blow to the spine that causes a fracture or dislocation of the vertebrae. Damage begins at the time of injury when displaced bone fragments and disc or ligament material tear the spinal cord tissue. It is a catastrophic event, whose consequences persist throughout the patient’s life, also affecting family members and society.
From a clinical point of view, the limited access to autologous donor material and the associated immunological problems have promoted new strategies such as the use of biomaterials. Tissue engineering is a branch of regenerative medicine that consists of the use of biocompatible materials (scaffolds) on which the cells responsible for restoring the function of damaged tissue grow. In this project we seek to design suitable scaffolds combined with encapsulated neurotrophic factors, capable of longitudinally guiding the axonal growth of neural progenitors, thus stimulating the regeneration of neural tissue.
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