After spinal cord injury (SCI), tissue engineering scaffolds offer a potential bridge for regeneration across the lesion and support repair through proregenerative signaling. Ideal biomaterial scaffolds that mimic the physicochemical properties of native tissue have the potential to provide innate trophic signaling while also minimizing damaging inflammation. To address this challenge, taking cues from the spinal cord's structure, the proregenerative signaling capabilities of native cord components are compared in vitro. A synergistic mix of collagen‐IV and fibronectin (Coll‐IV/Fn) is found to optimally enhance axonal extension from neuronal cell lines (SHSY‐5Y and NSC‐34) and induce morphological features typical of quiescent astrocytes. This optimal composition is incorporated into hyaluronic acid scaffolds with aligned pore architectures but varying stiffnesses (0.8–3 kPa). Scaffolds with biomimetic mechanical properties (<1 kPa), functionalized with Coll‐IV/Fn, not only modulate primary astrocyte behavior but also stimulate the production of anti‐inflammatory cytokine IL‐10 in a stiffness‐dependent manner. Seeded SHSY‐5Y neurons generate distributed neuronal networks, while softer biomimetic scaffolds promote axonal outgrowth in an ex vivo model of axonal regrowth. These results indicate that the interaction of stiffness and biomaterial composition plays an essential role in vitro in generating repair‐critical cellular responses and demonstrates the potential of biomimetic scaffold design.

Background: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in research aims to improve the quality, relevance and appropriateness of research. PPI has an established role in clinical research where there is evidence of benefit, and where policymakers and funders place continued emphasis on its inclusion. However, for preclinical research, PPI has not yet achieved the same level of integration. As more researchers, including our team, aim to include PPI in preclinical research, the development of an evidence-based approach is important. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to identify and map studies where PPI has been used in preclinical research and develop principles that can be applied in other projects.Methods: A scoping review was conducted to search the literature in Medline

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