title: Human amniotic epithelial cells combined with silk fibroin scaffold in the repair of spinal cord injury.
abstract: Treatment and functional reconstruction after central nervous system injury is a major medical and social challenge. An increasing number of researchers are attempting to use neural stem cells combined with artificial scaffold materials, such as fibroin, for nerve repair. However, such approaches are challenged by ethical and practical issues. Amniotic tissue, a clinical waste product, is abundant, and amniotic epithelial cells are pluripotent, have low immunogenicity, and are not the subject of ethical debate. We hypothesized that amniotic epithelial cells combined with silk fibroin scaffolds would be conducive to the repair of spinal cord injury. To test this, we isolated and cultured amniotic epithelial cells, and constructed complexes of these cells and silk fibroin scaffolds. Implantation of the cell-scaffold complex into a rat model of spinal cord injury resulted in a smaller glial scar in the damaged cord tissue than in model rats that received a blank scaffold, or amniotic epithelial cells alone. In addition to a milder local immunological reaction, the rats showed less inflammatory cell infiltration at the transplant site, milder host-versus-graft reaction, and a marked improvement in motor function. These findings confirm that the transplantation of amniotic epithelial cells combined with silk fibroin scaffold can promote the repair of spinal cord injury. Silk fibroin scaffold can provide a good nerve regeneration microenvironment for amniotic epithelial cells.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Ting-Gang
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Ai-Hua
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Zong-Ning
authors.initials: ZN
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: First Affiliated Hospital, Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Guo-Zhen
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Hui
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Wuxi Third People's Hospital, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Wei-Jiang
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0147-3099
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: amniotic epithelial cells; glial scar; immunological reaction; microenvironment; nerve regeneration; neural regeneration; rejection; scaffold; silk fibroin; spinal cord injury; transplantation