| Popis: |
The central nervous system, in which the spinal cord is included, has a limited capacity of self-regeneration. Therefore, diseases affecting the spinal cord normally have a poor prognosis. This highlights the necessity of developing innovative therapies targeting spinal cord regeneration. Accordingly, tissue engineering has been on the forefront of promoting regeneration in several tissues and organs through the development of scaffolds enabling the growth and proliferation of transplanted and/or endogenous cells. In this chapter, it is intended to provide an overview of the most recent and auspicious scaffold applications to enhance spinal cord regeneration. Focus will be given to natural (extracellular matrix-derived or not), synthetic, and other relevant scaffold compositions. The advantages and disadvantages of each type of formulation together with an insight about the future perspectives of the field will also be discussed. |
