UK scientists want to develop miniature scaffolding that can be inserted into the brain of stroke victims to help regenerate the damage - the loss of blood and dying brain tissue - with stem cells.
Speaking at the UK National Stem Cell Network Annual Science Meeting today, Dr Mike Modo from the Institute of Psychiatry will explain how combining scaffold microparticles with neural stem cells (NSCs) could regenerate lost brain tissue.
With funding already secured from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), neurobiologists from the Institute of Psychiatry and tissue engineers from the University of Nottingham have joined forces to tackle the challenge of tissue loss as a result of stroke.
In rats, Dr Modo and team are developing cell-scaffold combinations that could be injected into the brain to provide a framework inside the cavities caused by stroke so that the cells are held there until they can work their way to connect with surrounding healthy tissue.
Dr Modo explained: “We propose that using scaffold particles could support NSCs in the cavity to re-form the lost tissue and provide a more complete functional repair. The ultimate aim is to establish if this approach can provide a more efficient and effective repair process in stroke.”
The team hope their work will pave the way for NSCs to be successfully used in clinical settings to re-develop parts of the brain damaged by stroke and neurodegenerative diseases.
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Date Published: April 10, 2008
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