Abstract:

Abstract:Objective To evaluate the biocompatibility of chemically extracted acellular muscle grafts (CEAM) and to demonstrate its advantages as tissue engineering scaffold after transplantation into the spinal cords of adult rats.Methods Thirty-six male rats were randomly assigned to control group and CEAM group, and underwent spinal cord lateral hemisection.After preparation of successful models,treatment consisted of application of CEAM into the lesion gap,which was left empty in control  group.Six rats in each group were killed 1,2 and 4 weeks after induction of the injury.Sections were stained for quantification of microglia/macrophages using ED-1 on week 1,week 2 and week 4.Additionally,Holmes’ silver staining method was chosen to detect axonal regeneration,glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) staining for detection of astrocytes in glial scars,and alkaline phosphatase staining for vascularisation on day 28. Results In control group,no definite axonal outgrowth into the lesion was found.The inflammatory response was most pronounced on day 7 and a dense non-oriented accumulation of astrocytes could be found at the edge of the lesion cavity in control group.In CEAM group,the number of regenerating axons in the scaffolds was 613.17±154.96,and they grew into the grafts in a strikingly organized fashion. The change of inflammatory response in CEAM group was the same as that in control group and there was no sign of the foreign body reaction induced by CEAM.In rats of CEAM group the astrocytes grew into the graft in a diffuse linear array.Vascularisation of the grafts was also confirmed.Conclusion CEAM is biocompatible with spinal cord,and it indicates that CEAM is a kind of good tissue engineering scaffold for the repair of spinal cord injury.


Key words: spinal cord injury；acellular muscle；transplantation；tissue engineering;rats,Wistar