Understanding the importance of electrical stimulation in spinal cord injury repair

组织工程（TE）领域一直对利用机体固有的能力通过成体干细胞（SC）再生特别感兴趣。一种促进体内SC的有吸引力的解决方案是使用电刺激（ES），其显示出促进SC增殖和分化为神经细胞，并增强轴突再生[3-5]。与此同时，ES还显示出通过靶向神经胶质细胞促进促再生、抗炎环境[6-7]。因此，预计ES可以成为SCI后患者的合适治疗方法，促进轴突再生，同时减少慢性细胞死亡。然而，最佳的ES范式仍有待确定。这个多学科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应用以及不同的ES范式如何使患者受益。

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.