Abstract: Treatment and functional reconstruction afer central nervous system injury is a major medical and social challenge. An increasing number of researchers are attempting to use neural stem cells combined with artifcial sca?old materials, such as fbroin, for nerve repair. However, such approaches are challenged by ethical and practical issues. Amniotic tissue, a clinical waste product, is abundant, and amniotic epithelial cells are pluripotent, have low immunogenicity, and are not the subject of ethical debate. We hypothesized that amniotic epithelial cells combined with silk fbroin sca?olds would be conducive to the repair of spinal cord injury. To test this, we isolated and cultured amniotic epithelial cells, and constructed complexes of these cells and silk fbroin sca?olds. Implantation of the cell-sca?old complex into a rat model of spinal cord injury resulted in a smaller glial scar in the damaged cord tissue than in model rats that received a blank sca?old, or amniotic epithelial cells alone. In addition to a milder local immunological reaction, the rats showed less in?ammatory cell infltration at the transplant site, milder host-versus-graf reaction, and a marked improvement in motor function. Tese fndings confrm that the transplantation of amniotic epithelial cells combined with silk fbroin sca?old can promote the repair of spinal cord injury. Silk fbroin sca?old can provide a good nerve regeneration microenvironment for amniotic epithelial cells.

Key words: nerve regeneration, spinal cord injury, amniotic epithelial cells, silk fbroin, sca?old, transplantation, glial scar, microenvironment, immunological reaction, rejection, neural regeneration