The Potential of Combining Novel Silk-Based Biomaterial Implants and Stem Cells in Promoting Spinal Cord Injury Repair

There are about 2.5 million spinal cord injury (SCI) patients globally. The UK has around 40,000 people living with SCI, with 1,200 new cases per year and an estimated cost of £1 billion per annum in caring for affected individuals. Despite intensive research, there is currently no effective therapy for SCI.

Collaborating with Oxford Biomaterials Ltd., Dr Wenlong Huang has shown that novel silk-based conduits with a luminal scaffold confer excellent axonal regeneration in a rodent model of peripheral nerve injury. Preliminary studies in the spinal cord indicate that the silk conduits also support regeneration of spinal cord axons.

Stem cells, from which all tissues can be generated, offer the potential to reconstitute tissues damaged by injury and disease. There is now considerable preclinical literature on the possible benefits of stem cell–based therapies following traumatic SCI. Stem cells may assist recovery through limitation of secondary injury, remyelination, formation of new neuronal connections, and alteration of the inhibitory environment.

An important conclusion of decades of research in SCI is that the concept of a “magic bullet” focused on a single strategy is not helpful, and instead the current consensus for spinal repair is that a combinatorial approach is more likely to succeed. Therefore, we propose a combination of the silk biomaterials and stem cells transplantation for SCI repair.

Research training

The student would receive training in primary neuronal cultures, stem cell cultures, immunocytochemistry, fluorescent/time-lapse/confocal microscopy, in vivo small rodent SCI surgery, immunohistochemistry, image analysis, and locomotor and sensory function assessment. Some training will be carried out in Dr Huang’s collaborators labs in London.