Salmon fibrin treatment of spinal cord injury promotes functional recovery and density of serotonergic innervation.

ABSTRACT: The neural degeneration caused by spinal cord injury leaves a cavity at the injury site that greatly inhibits repair. One approach to promoting repair is to fill the cavity with a scaffold to limit further damage and encourage regrowth. Injectable materials are advantageous scaffolds because they can be placed as a liquid in the lesion site then form a solid in vivo that precisely matches the contours of the lesion. Fibrin is one type of injectable scaffold, but risk of infection from blood borne pathogens has limited its use. We investigated the potential utility of salmon fibrin as an injectable scaffold to treat spinal cord injury since it lacks mammalian infectious agents and encourages greater neuronal extension in vitro than mammalian fibrin or Matrigel®, another injectable material.

SUBMITTER: Sharp KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3437931 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature