After an injury, the central nervous system's limited
regenerative capacity severely hampers the reconnection
and functional recovery of affected nervous tissue, making
it an arduous task. To address this critical issue,
biomaterials have emerged as a promising solution for
designing scaffolds that facilitate and guide the
regenerative process. Leveraging prior research on
regenerated silk fibroin fibers produced via the straining
flow spinning (SFS) technique, this study aims to
demonstrate that biofunctionalized SFS fibers offer
superior guidance capabilities compared to non-
functionalized fibers. The study reveals that neurons' axons
exhibit a remarkable tendency to align with the fibers'
paths, in contrast to the isotropic growth observed on
conventional culture plates. Additionally, the guidance
ability of these fibers can be further enhanced through the
biofunctionalization of the material with adhesion
peptides. Proving the exceptional guidance potential of
these fibers opens up exciting possibilities for their
application as implants in spinal cord injuries. They could
serve as a core component of a therapeutic approach that
facilitates the reconnection of injured spinal cord ends,
holding promise for significantly improving treatment
outcomes in such cases.This study was partially funded by the Ministerio de
Ciencia e Innovación (PID2020-116403RB-I00;
MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), Comunidad de
Madrid (MINA-CM P2022-BMD-7236) and by the
agreement between the Comunidad de Madrid (Spain) and
the UPM through the REACT-UE funds of the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF), as a part of the
response of the European Union to the SARS-CoV2 and
COVID- 19 pandemic. It also has been financed by the
UCM together with Banco Santander Scholarships (BOUC
11-23-2021; ref.: CT58/21-CT59/21)
