Abstract:

In a rapidly advancing field, biomaterial based transplantation platforms such as hydrogels and nanofibre scaffolds are enhancing engraftment by allowing multiple cell matrixes to be implanted, thereby replacing both the cells lost due to injury and the neurotrophic populations necessary to enrich them and modulate immune responses at the injury site. For example, we are currently successfully growing radial glial rich cultures isolated from the embryonic spinal cord on specialized biopolymers, and aim to apply these to spinal cord injury loci recreating the embryonic CNS microenvironment (unpublished). It is clear that intricate networks of radial glial cells or their progeny form scaffolds that segregate/guide growing axons, while contributing to gliogenesis and neurogenesis during development. Recent reports describing the ability of radial glial cells to re-differentiate at injury loci, and offer neurotrophic support to surviving cells in both amphibians and mammals, will ensure attention will continually be placed on radial glia and their derivatives. By combining this research with technological developments in neural tissue engineering to support the growth and transplantation of CNS progenitors, we are confident that radial glial cells, and in particular ES cell derivatives such as RG3.6 cells, will play significant roles in advancing cell replacement and regeneration therapies.