Engineering angiogenesis following spinal cord injury: A coculture of neural progenitor and endothelial cells in a degradable polymer implant leads to an increase in vessel density and formation of the blood-spinal cord barrier

This study explores a new method to promote blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) in the spinal cord after an injury. The goal is to see if more blood vessels can help the spinal cord repair itself. Researchers used a special implant made of a material that breaks down over time. This implant contained two types of cells: endothelial cells (ECs, which form blood vessels) and neural progenitor cells (NPCs, which can turn into nerve cells). The results showed that the implant with both ECs and NPCs led to more blood vessels forming in the injured spinal cord compared to other treatments. Importantly, these new vessels also started to form a protective barrier called the blood-spinal cord barrier (BSB).

• 1
  The coculture implant led to a four fold increase in functional vessels compared to the lesion control, implant alone, or implant plus NPCs groups.
• 2
  Half of the vessels in the coculture implant exhibited positive staining for the endothelial barrier antigen, a marker for formation of the blood spinal cord barrier (BSB).
• 3
  The coculture was the only treatment that led to the expression of the marker for the BSB on the lesioned side of the cord.