Implantable porous gelatin microspheres sustained release of bFGF and improved its neuroprotective effect on rats after spinal cord injury

Abstract

In this study, porous gelatin microspheres (GMSs) were constructed to improve the neuroprotective effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) on spinal cord injury. GMSs were prepared by a W/O emulsion template, followed by cross-linking, washing and drying. The particle sizes and surface porosity of the blank GMSs were carefully characterized by scan electronic microscopy. The blank GMSs have a mean particle size of 35μm and theirs surface was coarse and porous. bFGF was easily encapsulated inside the bulk GMSs through diffusion along the porous channel. 200μg of bFGF was completely encapsulated in 100mg of GMSs. The bFGF-loaded GMSs displayed a continuous drug release pattern without an obvious burst release over two weeks in vitro. Moreover, the therapeutic effects of bFGF-loaded GMSs were also evaluated in spinal cord injury rat model. After implantation of bFGF-loaded GMSs, the recovery of the motor function of SCI rats were evaluated by behavioral score and foot print experiment. The motor function of SCI rats treated with bFGF-loaded GMSs was more obvious than that treated with free bFGF solution (P<0.05). At the 28th days after treatment, rats were sacrificed and the injured spinal were removed for histopathological and apoptosis examination. Compared with treatment with free bFGF solution, treatment with bFGF-loaded GMSs resulted in a less necrosis, less infiltration of leukocytes, and a reduced the cavity ratio and less apoptotic cells in injured spinal(P<0.01), indicating its better therapeutic effect. Implantable porous GMSs may be a potential carrier to deliver bFGF for therapy of spinal cord injury.

tDCS Accelerates the Rehabilitation of MCAO-Induced Motor Function Deficits via Neurogenesis Modulated by the Notch1 Signaling Pathway

“…14 Briefly, the animal's left forepaw (contralateral to MCAO surgery) was dipped in a dye. 25 Then, the animals were allowed to walk across a narrow box (50 cm × 8.5 cm × 10 cm) with a sheet of white paper on the bottom. The footprints were recorded at 1 day before MCAO and every 2 days from POD 2 to POD 14, respectively.…”

Sustained-release of FGF-2 from a hybrid hydrogel of heparin-poloxamer and decellular matrix promotes the neuroprotective effects of proteins after spinal injury

“…22 Thus, detection of FITC fluorescence was usually exploited to evaluate in vitro release of FGF2 from hydrogels and trace its distribution in vivo. 26 Approximately 20 μL of cold FITC-FGF2-HP solution and FITC-FGF2-dscECM-HP solution were injected into the injured spinal cord in situ. The rats were sacrificed, and their spinal cords were separated at 15 min, 1, 3, 5, and 7 days after the injection of the hydrogel.…”

Orthogonal test design for the optimization of superparamagnetic chitosan plasmid gelatin microspheres that promote vascularization of artificial bone

“…Using all kinds of cell growth factors and combining them with scaffold materials for angiogenesis are among the main reconstruction strategies for supplying blood in artificial bones (Lindhorst, Tavassol, von, et al, ; Lovett et al, ; Sun et al, ). The other main strategies include using transgenic cells to construct bone tissues (Kawai et al, ; Kawai, Bessho, Maruyama, Miyazaki, & Yamamoto, ), using tissues that contain abundant vascular nets and wrapping or implanting them into a bone scaffold material (Li & Kawashita, ; Türer & Önger, ; Wu et al, ), using a drug (gene) release system for the vascularization of artificial bones or bone tissues, and performing vascularized bone tissue preconstruction (Hall, ; Lan, Tian, ZhuGe, et al, ; Moncion, Lin, O'Neill, et al, ). Bioactive artificial bones containing magnetic drug‐carrying microspheres that facilitate vascularization under in vitro magnetic field (SMF or OMF) is currently unreported.…”