Abstract
Spinal cord injury (SCI) represents an extremely debilitating condition for which no efficacious treatment is available. One of the main contributors to the inhospitable environment found in SCI is the vascular disruption that happens at the moment of injury that compromises the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) and triggers a cascade of events that includes infiltration of inflammatory cells, ischemia and intraparenchymal hemorrhage. Due to the unsatisfactory nature of revascularization following SCI, restoring vascular perfusion and the BSCB seems an interesting way of modulating the lesion environment into a regenerative phenotype, with a potential increase in functional recovery. Certain biomaterials possess interesting features to enhance SCI therapies, and in fact have been applied as angiogenic promoters in other pathologies. The present mini-review intends to highlight the contribution that biomaterials could make in the development of novel therapeutic solutions able to restore proper vascularization and the BSCB.
Highlights
Vascular disruption following Spinal cord injury (SCI) plays a critical role in triggering some of the secondary events associated with this injury such as uncontrolled infiltration of inflammatory cells and ischemia
Two days following the incidence of SCI, the density of blood vessels decreases and only residual levels are observed at the injury site (Ng et al, 2011)
By controlling the spatial distribution and density of these molecular cues it is possible to modulate the maturation and formation of newborn blood vessels and the rate at which they degrade the engineered extracellular matrix (ECM) and infiltrate into host tissue or vice versa (Hanjaya-Putra et al, 2011, 2012). These types of materials can be considered blank canvasses to create tunable platforms that can modulate the angiogenic response in a specific way unlike ECM-derived materials
Summary
Vascular disruption following SCI plays a critical role in triggering some of the secondary events associated with this injury such as uncontrolled infiltration of inflammatory cells and ischemia. The Role of Biomaterials as Angiogenic Modulators of SCI therapeutic approaches have correlated improvements in functional recovery with augmented densities of blood vessels in spinal cord tissue (Glaser et al, 2006; Kaneko et al, 2007). This is further sustained by the elevated metabolic need of neurons, making these cells more susceptible to damage during prolonged ischemia (Attwell and Laughlin, 2001).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
