Neural Regeneration in Spinal Cord Injury using Combination of Photoreactive Gelatin and Fusion Protein of Hepatocyte Growth Factor

Introduction: A combinatorial approach involving scaffolds, neurotrophic growth factors, and cells is believed to be the ideal therapy for effectively repairing spinal cord injury (SCI). However, methods to deliver growth factors and cells to injured sites efficiently have not yet been well established. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is one of the neurotrophic growth factors to neural regeneration. We created a fusion protein of collagen-binding HGF (CBD-HGF), which has high collagen binding affinity and high activity in the bound state of collagen. Hydrogels have been studied as one of biomaterials for spinal cord injury. In the present study, we used photoreactive gelatin (PG) as a scaffold, which is a kind of hydrogel and can be solidified by visible light. This gelatin also can encapsulate growth factors and cells. We examined whether the combinational methods of PG and CBDHGF can be effective for the spinal transected mouse model.