Endogenous In Situ Tissue Regeneration Using Inductive Bioscaffolds After Acute Brain Injury

Introduction: Acute brain injuries lead to severe tissue damage and loss. The brain has a limited ability to repair damaged tissues, but does not spontaneously regenerate lost tissue. To overcome this limitation, engineering strategies can be devised to provide a structural support for brain cells to invade, as well as for these scaffoldsScaffolds to release inductive molecules that stimulate the proliferation, migrationMigration and differentiationDifferentiation of brain cells. Methods: Inductive bioscaffoldsBioscaffolds can be derived by the decellularization of tissues to isolate extracellular matrixExtracellular matrix (ECM). ECM is suitable for brain injections through a thin needle in its liquid form and its cross-linking at body temperature creates a hydrogelHydrogel. The properties of these natural top-down scaffoldsScaffolds serves as inspiration for synthetic hydrogelsHydrogel that are specifically designed in a bottom-up fashion to invoke the regenerative capacity of the damaged brain. Results: ECM-based inductive bioscaffoldsBioscaffolds have been shown to induce a tissue regenerationRegeneration response in tissue cavities caused by acute brain injuries. They supply inductive cues to attract immune cells, neural cells, as well as endothelial cells into the tissue cavity, while providing a structural support for cells to migrate and position themselves in a tissue configuration. Conclusion: Inductive bioscaffoldsBioscaffolds provide an exciting engineering platform to overcome the lack of tissue regenerationRegeneration that hampers recovery after acute brain injuries.