Abstract: One reason for the poor therapeutic effects of stem cell transplantation in traumatic brain injury is that exogenous neural stem cells cannot effectively migrate to the local injury site, resulting in poor adhesion and proliferation of neural stem cells at the injured area. To enhance the targeted delivery of exogenous stem cells to the injury site, cell therapy combined with neural tissue engineering technology is expected to become a new strategy for treating traumatic brain injury. Collagen/heparan sulfate porous scaffolds, prepared using a freeze-drying method, have stable physical and chemical properties. These scaffolds also have good cell biocompatibility because of their high porosity, which is suitable for the proliferation and migration of neural stem cells. In the present study, collagen/heparan sulfate porous scaffolds loaded with neural stem cells were used to treat a rat model of traumatic brain injury, which was established using the controlled cortical impact method. At 2 months after the implantation of collagen/heparan sulfate porous scaffolds loaded with neural stem cells, there was significantly improved regeneration of neurons, nerve fibers, synapses, and myelin sheaths in the injured brain tissue. Furthermore, brain edema and cell apoptosis were significantly reduced, and rat motor and cognitive functions were markedly recovered. These findings suggest that the novel collagen/heparan sulfate porous scaffold loaded with neural stem cells can improve neurological function in a rat model of traumatic brain injury. This study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of Characteristic Medical Center of Chinese People’s Armed Police Force, China (approval No. 2017-0007.2) on February 10, 2019.

Key words: collagen, heparan sulfate, injury, neural stem cells, regeneration, repair, scaffold, traumatic brain injury, morris water maze, motor evoked potential, synapses, myelin sheaths