Spinal cord reconstruction using NeuroGel™ implants and functional recovery after chronic injury

✍ Scribed by Stéphane Woerly; Van Diep Doan; F. Evans-Martin; Christopher G. Paramore; Jean D. Peduzzi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 581 KB
• Volume: 66
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-4012
• DOI: 10.1002/jnr.1255

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

There is currently a lack of effective ways to achieve functional tissue repair of the chronically injured spinal cord. We investigated the potential of NeuroGel™, a biocompatible polymer hydrogel, to induce a reconstruction of the rat spinal cord after chronic compression‐produced injury. NeuroGel™ was inserted 3 months after a severe injury into the post‐traumatic lesion cavity. Rats were placed in an enriched environment and the functional deficits were measured using the BBB rating scale. A significant improvement in the mean BBB scores was observed. Rats without enriched environment and severely injured rats with an enriched environment alone showed no improvement; however, 7 months after reconstructive surgery using NeuroGel™, a reparative neural tissue had formed within the polymer gel that included myelinated axons and dendro‐dendritic contacts. NeuroGel™ implantation into a chronic spinal cord injury therefore resulted in tissue reconstruction and functional improvement, suggesting that such an approach may have therapeutic value in the repair of focal lesions in humans. J Neurosci. Res. 66:1187–1197, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.