Hierarchically aligned fibrin nanofiber hydrogel accelerated axonal regrowth and locomotor function recovery in rat spinal cord injury

This study focuses on developing biomaterials to mimic the functions of the extracellular matrix, aiming to deliver regulatory signals for tissue regeneration, particularly in the context of spinal cord injury. A three-dimensional hierarchically aligned fibrin hydrogel (AFG) was created to mimic the natural environment of spinal cord tissue, featuring oriented topography and soft stiffness to promote cell invasion and axonal regrowth. The AFG scaffold facilitated directional host cell invasion, vascular system reconstruction, and axonal regrowth, leading to improved locomotor function recovery in rats with spinal cord injuries.

• 1
  Host cells rapidly invaded the aligned fibrin hydrogels, forming aligned tissue cables within the first week, followed by axonal regrowth in the rat spinal cord injury model.
• 2
  New axon regrowth was observed in the oriented tissue cables, penetrating throughout the lesion site by 8 weeks, indicated by abundant NF- and GAP-43-positive staining.
• 3
  Locomotor performance in the AFG group recovered much faster compared to the control and random fibrin hydrogel (RFG) groups, starting from 2 weeks after surgery.