Development of Hybrid Therapy Using Nanotechnology and Cell Sheet Engineering for Severe Spinal Cord Injury

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K18023
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Orthopaedic surgery; Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Nara Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Okuda Akinori 奈良県立医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (80646167)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 脊髄損傷 / 軸索再生 / 細胞シート / 神経幹細胞

Outline of Final Research Achievements

To obtain significant functional improvement of spinal cord injury, we thought it was necessary to give regenerated axons orientation, and attempted to create oriented cell sheets in a grid shape, but the sheet structure could not be maintained due to insufficient strength, so we used a regular cell sheet shape. In addition, cell fiber technology was used to give the transplanted neural stem cells orientation, but since the cell sheets were folded during transplantation, the orientation was lost during the folding process and could not be maintained. Therefore, we developed a co-culture sheet in which neural stem cells were co-cultured on the cell sheet with the axon regeneration inhibitory factor present in the BMSC sheet. Although it promoted axonal regeneration and remyelination better than regular cell sheets, no significant difference in improvement of motor function was observed.

Free Research Field

脊髄損傷

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

打撲型脊髄損傷は臨床現場でよく見かける損傷形態であり、数多くの研究が行われており、治療薬の創薬も行われている。一方、最重症である離断型脊髄損傷は臨床ではあまり遭遇しないが、症例は存在している。脊髄が離断しているため、軸索再生の余地がなく、重症であるため研究もすくなく、再生治療の手立てが現在ない。我々の研究から開発した骨髄間葉系細胞と神経幹細胞の共培養シートは欠損脊髄を補充し、軸索再生と再髄鞘化を促進できるscaffoldであることが分かった。今後更に改良し、離断型脊髄損傷治療の一助としたい。