Structural alignment guides oriented migration and differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells for neurogenesis
Yi Chai1, He Zhao2, Shuhui Yang3
1State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China; Department of Neurosurgery, Yuquan Hospital, School of Clinical Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100040, China; Department of Neurosurgery, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, No. 160, Pujian Road, District Pudong, Shanghai, 200127, China.
Abstract:
Radial glia (RG) cells that align in parallel in the embryonic brain are found to be able to guide the directed migration of neurons in response to brain injury. Therefore, biomaterials with aligned architectures are supposed to have positive effects on neural migration and neurogenic differentiation for brain injury repair that are rarely addressed, although they have been widely demonstrated in spinal cord and peripheral nerve system. Here, we present a highly biomimetic scaffold of aligned fibrin hydrogel (AFG) that mimics the oriented structure of RG fibers. Through a combination of histological, behavioral, imaging, and transcriptomic analyses, we demonstrated that transplanting the AFG scaffold into injured cortical brains promotes effective migration, differentiation, and maturation of endogenous neural stem cells, resulting in neurological functional recovery. Therefore, this study will light up a new perspective on applying an aligned scaffold to promote cortical regeneration after injury by inducing endogenous neurogenesis.
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