Neurovascualar Regeneration

血管和神经平行发育，它们的存活和功能在 出生后的组织是相互依赖的，因此，当一个系统受损时，另一个系统 堕落缺血性中风是血管损伤导致 神经退行性变和功能缺陷;中风每年影响1/59的成年人， 其中约500万人永久残疾。虽然中风造成的初期损伤 产生神经元细胞损失，该过程迅速演变为其他细胞类型的损失， 细胞外基质，导致空化空隙。我们的初步动物研究，在一个 模拟人类中风的模型，表明神经干细胞（NSC）的移植 单独使用可以改善中风引起的功能缺陷;然而，我们没有发现神经 因为移植的细胞只整合到保留组织的区域， 架构此外，移植的NSC没有持续存在，限制了修复。我们会绕过 目前通过生物工程改造微环境进行细胞移植的局限性 这将维持NSC并使它们能够离体繁殖，以及 移植我们在前期的研究中为我们的项目打下了实验基础 在其中，我们通过成像和定量建立了NSC生态位的3D模型， 分析，并开发出适合于工程这种微环境的生物材料， vivo.我们还建立了原则证明，细胞基质结构的移植 中风模型是可行的，并减少病变的大小。在建议的研究中，我们会 继续根据我们的生物学研究优化我们的工程利基设计 调节脑中的神经发生和血管生成（目的1）， 体外（目标2）和体内（目标3）的连续测试， 和中风的真实模型，这将使我们更接近于发展神经- 人类患者的血管再生疗法。虽然我们最初的临床目标是 中风受伤的组织，获得的见解，和发展的战略，从我们的 拟议的研究将广泛适用于其他神经血管损伤的修复， 创伤性脑损伤和多发性硬化

Blood vessels and nerves develop in parallel and their survival and function in postnatal tissues are interdependent; thus, when one system is damaged, the other degenerates. Ischemic stroke is one example in which vascular damage leads to neurological degeneration and functional deficits; stroke affects 1 in 59 adults annually of whom ~5 million are permanently disabled. While the initial damage from stroke produces neuronal cell loss, the process quickly evolves into loss of other cell types and extracellular matrix, resulting in a cavitational void. Our preliminary animal studies, in a model that mimics human stroke, suggest that transplantation of neural stem cells (NSC) alone may ameliorate functional deficits caused by stroke; however, we found no neural restoration since transplanted cells integrated only into areas that retained tissue architecture. Moreover, engrafted NSC did not persist, limiting repair. We will circumvent these current limitations of cell transplantation by bioengineering a microenvironment that will sustain NSC and enable their propagation ex vivo, as well as in vivo upon transplantation. We laid the experimental groundwork for our project in previous studies in which we established a 3D model of the NSC niche via imaging and quantitative analysis, and developed biomaterials suitable for engineering this microenvironment ex vivo. We also established proof of principle that transplantation of cell-matrix constructs into stroke models is feasible and reduces lesion size. In the proposed studies, we will continue to optimize the design of our engineered niches based on our biological studies of the regulation of neurogenesis and angiogenesis in the brain (Aim 1), and by sequential testing in vitro (Aim 2) and in vivo (Aim 3) in progressively more challenging and realistic models of stroke, which will enable us to move closer to developing neuro- vascular regenerative therapies for human patients. Although our initial clinical target will be stroke-injured tissues, the insights gained, and strategies developed, from our proposed studies will be broadly applicable to repair of other neurovascular injuries such as traumatic brain injury and multiple sclerosis.