Understanding the importance of electrical stimulation in spinal cord injury repair

组织工程(TE)领域对利用体内固有的成体干细胞(SC)再生的能力特别感兴趣。在体内促进SC的一个有吸引力的解决方案是使用电刺激(ES)，它被证明能促进SC的增殖和分化为神经细胞，并促进轴突再生[3-5]。同时，ES还被证明通过靶向神经胶质细胞来促进促再生和抗炎环境[6-7]。因此，ES有望成为脊髓损伤后患者的一种合适的治疗方法，在促进轴突再生的同时减少慢性细胞死亡。然而，最优的ES范式仍有待确定。这一多学科的博士项目将深入了解脊髓的正常修复机制，并评估外源性ES在脊髓损伤修复中的使用以及不同的ES范例如何使患者受益。

The field of tissue engineering (TE) has been particularly interested in harnessing the inherent bodys ability to regenerate via adult stem cells (SC).One attractive solution to promote in vivo SC is the use of electrical stimulation (ES), which was shown to promote SC proliferation and differentiation into neural cells, and enhance axonal regeneration [3-5]. In parallel, ES has been also shown to promote pro-regenerative, anti-inflammatory environments, by targeting glial cells [6-7].Thus, it is expected that ES can be a suitable treatment for patients after SCI, promoting axonal regeneration while decreasing chronic cell death. However, the optimal ES paradigm is still to be determined. This multidisciplinary PhD project will give insights into the normal repair mechanism of the spinal cord, as well as evaluate the use of exogenous ES in spinal cord injury repair and how different ES paradigms could benefit patients.