Neurite outgrowth and recovery from spinal cord injury by cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels

Influence of cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels on neurite outgrowth and recovery from spinal cord injury.

Article specifications

This study was published in 2007 in Journal of J Neurosurg Spine (IF 2007: 2.10) by American specialists. The aim of this study is to identify the influence of cross-linked hyaluronic acid hydrogels on neurite outgrowth and recovery from spinal cord injury.

 

Results

Analysis of our data shows the ability of a cross-linked HA hydrogel to enhance and support neuritic outgrowth from chick DRGs and highlights the feasibility of these matrices as neural scaffolds for tissue engineering. Moreover, the findings suggest that the innate bioactivity of this material may begin to address many of the inhibitory extracellular environment characteristics found in CNS injury sites. The cross-linked HA hydrogel was unable to overcome the strong inflammatory response induced by spinal cord transection. Therefore, future studies will be focused on incorporating antiinflammatory agents to help inhibit this response.