Constructing linear oriented pre-vascularized human spinal cord tissues for spinal cord injury repair.

Repairing spinal cord injury (SCI) is a global medical challenge lacking effective clinical treatment. Developing human-engineered spinal cord tissues that can replenish lost cells and restore a regenerative microenvironment offers promising potential for SCI therapy. However, creating vascularized human spinal cord-like tissues that mimic the diverse cell types and longitudinal parallel structural features of spinal cord tissues remains a significant hurdle. In present study, vascularized spinal cord tissues (VSCT) were engineered using embryonic human spinal cord-derived neural cells and endothelial cells on linear ordered collagen scaffolds (LOCS). Studies have shown that astrocytes and endothelial cells align along the scaffolds in VSCT, supporting axon extension from various human neurons myelinated by oligodendrocytes. After transplantation into SCI rats, VSCT survived at the injury sites, promoted endogenous neural regeneration and vascularization, ultimately reducing scarring and enhanced the behavioral functional recovery. It suggests pre-vascularization of engineered spinal cord tissues are beneficial for SCI treatment and highlights the important role of exogenous endothelial cells in tissue engineering. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.