Conference presentation
Development of an implantable alginate scaffold for the treatment of spinal cord trauma
Drexel University. School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems. Biomedical Technology Showcase, 2006.
22 Aug 2006
Abstract
Spinal cord injury is extremely devastating and usually causes permanent disability. An obstacle of treatment is the formation of glial scar tissue at the site of injury, which prevents the delivery of neurotrophic factors. Alginate administration at the site of injury has been shown to reduce scar formation. Implantation of fibroblasts that produce neurotrophic factors have been shown to promote neuronal regeneration. An alginate scaffold was developed to allow for the diffusion of BDNF to the injury while protecting the fibroblasts from an immune response. This scaffold was seeded with undifferentiated NB2a cells. After 7 days, the NB2a cells showed an unusually high amount of proliferation, differentiation and neurite outgrowth without the addition of differentiating factors. This shows potential to make this approach a viable strategy for delivery of neurotrophic factors in the body.
Metrics
4 File views/ downloads
2 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Development of an implantable alginate scaffold for the treatment of spinal cord trauma
- Creators
- Mihir S. Shanbhag (Author) - Drexel University (1970-)Margaret A. Wheatley (Author) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Publication Details
- Drexel University. School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems. Biomedical Technology Showcase, 2006.
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- DU; School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and Health Systems
- Identifiers
- 991014632840504721