Hydrogels for brain repair after stroke: an emerging treatment option

Abstract

Stroke disability is the only major disease without an effective treatment. The substantial clinical burden of stroke in disabled survivors and the lack of a medical therapy that promotes recovery provide an opportunity to explore the use of biomaterials to promote brain repair after stroke. Hydrogels can be injected as a liquid and solidify in situ to form a gelatinous solid with similar mechanical properties to the brain. These biomaterials have been recently explored to generate pro-repair environments within the damaged organ. This review highlights the clinical problem of stroke treatment and discusses recent advances in using in situ forming hydrogels for brain repair.

Cortical Transplantation of Brain‐Mimetic Glycosaminoglycan Scaffolds and Neural Progenitor Cells Promotes Vascular Regeneration and Functional Recovery after Ischemic Stroke in Mice

“…Released proteins such as growth factors play an integral role in regeneration, and ECM binding is a critical step of NPC mediated trophic support . However, materials such as HA and PLGA lack the functional components necessary to enhance trophic factor retention and signaling.…”

Neurotrophic Factor-Laden Acellular Chondroitin Sulfate Scaffolds Promote Chronic Functional Recovery After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

“…Since cell proliferation, neuronal differentiation, and synaptic plasticity are indicators of normal brain tissue homeostasis 38,39 , we considered the occurrence of these processes within the lesion site as measures of functional neuronal network activity, tissue maintenance, and recovery. We quantified the presence of newly formed neurons using markers for immature/migrating neuroblasts (doublecortin, DCX+) and dividing (BrdU+) neuronal cells ( Fig.…”

Harnessing the Potential of Biomaterials for Brain Repair after Stroke

“…Without the appropriate stimuli, such as topographical or chemical cues, transplanted cells may not form these functional connections. Biomaterials have been used extensively to provide topographical cues to cells in vitro and in spinal cord injury models, but this is a newly emerging strategy for in vivo stroke models (Béduer et al, 2012;Nih et al, 2016;Tarus et al, 2016). A pioneering study engineered a micropatterned solid polydimethylsilosane (PDMS) scaffold containing microchannels and seeded with neurons for implantation into the rat brain.…”

“…In addition, Matrigel™ gels at room temperature through hydrophobic interactions between the components, causing it to be technically challenging for cell injection. To retain the desirable properties of Matrigel™ without its drawbacks, other strategies have favored the use of ECM-based hydrogels such as HA, fibrin, and collagen as they are well-defined and tunable (Nair and Laurencin, 2007;Nih et al, 2016).…”