Biomaterials: Key piece in the repair of spinal cord injuries
Keywords:
Biomaterials, spinal cord injury, nervous cells, tissue engineering, cell repairAbstract
Injury of spinal cord is a devastating condition affecting some 12,000 people yearly. A major
impact is produced on personal, familiar and social life as well as in working ability of patients,
their economy and their general health. Must common etiology of injury is due to trauma such
as vehicle accidents, falls from a height, working place and sports accidents and gun-shot.
There is still not available effective treatment in regenerating spinal cord injuries, however,
tissue-engineering can be an alternative resource intended to achieve regeneration of spinal
cord tissue by employing biomaterials, casting a scaffold or support for cells, aiming to allow
axonal growth and restoring neural continuity inside the injured spinal cord. In spite of the
overwhelming amount of investigation on this matter, only most reliable and available bioma-
terials are reviewed here. Main details and highlights of reviewed biomaterials are described
and compared for a judgment of the potential benefits for their application in the near future.
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