Development of a platelet lysates-based hydrogel for nerve regeneration

• Autor(a) principal: Correia, Joana Filipa Ribeiro
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/30911
• topic: Regenerative medicine; Hydrogels; Spinal cord injury; Axonal regeneration; Cortical neurons; Hippocampal neurons; Adipose-derived stem cells; Synapse

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a life-changing and debilitating medical condition. Currently, there is no definitive treatment. Novel regenerative medicine therapies have emerged in order to treat SCI. In this field, hydrogels are promising tools due to its high versatility of applications and design. Brain tissue has some particular characteristics such as its viscoelastic microenvironment and its soft extracellular matrix (ECM). Hydrogels can be designed to suit these characteristics and, therefore, be used to mimic brain tissue. Herein, we investigated the potential of a methacryloyl platelet lysates (PLMA) hydrogel to be applied as scaffold for axonal regeneration or as a carrier of cells. We observed that neurons do not adhere easily to the surface of the PLMA hydrogel alone. However, when the gel is coated with adhesives proteins like laminin or poly-D-lysine we observed that a large number of neurons adhere to its surface. Moreover, our data suggests that PLMA100 20% hydrogel can be used as a carrier of cortical neurons, which is of great relevance given that it can be used to replaced dead neurons. Additionally, adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are appealing cells to be encapsulated in PLMA100 hydrogels due to their effects on neurites outgrowth. In order to accomplish functional recovery, it is required that axonal regeneration be followed by synapse formation. However, ASCs’ synaptogenic potencial continues undetermined. In line with this, we analyzed the ability of ASCs to promote synapse formation. Our results indicate that ASCs are capable of inducing presynaptic clusters, a hallmark of synapse formation. PLMA hydrogel might possibly be used as a scaffold for axonal regeneration and a carrier for neuronal cells, making it a strong contender for development of future novel neuro-regenerative therapies.