Development and characterization of PHB-HV based 3D scaffolds for a tissue engineering and cell-therapy combinatorial approach for spinal cord Injury regeneration
Spinal cord injury (SCI) leads to devastating neurological deficits. Several tissue engineering (TE)-
based approaches have been investigated for repairing this condition. Poly (3-hydroxybutyrateco-
3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHB-HV) is found to be particularly attractive for TE applications due to
its properties, such as biodegradability, biocompatibility, thermoplasticity and piezoelectricity.
Hence, this report addresses the development and characterization of PHB-HV-based 3D
scaffolds, produced by freeze-drying, aimed to SCI treatment. The obtained scaffolds reveal an
anisotropic morphology with a fully interconnected
network of pores. In vitro studies demonstrate
a lack of cytotoxic effect of PHB-HV
scaffolds. Direct contact assays also reveal their
ability to support the culture of CNS-derived cells
and mesenchymal-like stem cells from different
sources. Finally, histocompatibility studies show
that PHB-HV scaffolds are well tolerated by the
host tissue, and do not negatively impact the left
hindlimb locomotor function recovery. Therefore
results herein presented suggest that PHB-HV
scaffolds may be suitable for SCI treatment.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT; Grant no PTDC/SAU-BMA/114059/2009; PEst-C/SAU/LA0001/2013-2014 and RNEM-REDE/1506/REM/2005) and Foundation Calouste Gulbenkian, under the scope of the Gulbenkian Program to Support Cutting Edge Research in Life Sciences (A.J.S.). This work was also partially supported by the European FP7 Project Find and Bind (NMP4-SL-2009-229292). The authors would like to thank Miguel Carvalho, Fabio Teixeira, and Filipa Campos for their collaboration in in vivo experiments
