Fluorescent image of a human spinal cord organoid after a laceration injury. Dead cells appear in red and live cells in green. (Samuel I. Stupp/Northwestern University)
In a new study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a Northwestern University research team created lab-grown human spinal cord organoids—miniature organs derived from stem cells—to model different types of spinal cord injuries and test a promising new regenerative therapy.
For the first time, researchers showed the organoids can reproduce the core features of spinal cord injury including cell death, inflammation, and the formation of glial scarring, the dense barrier of tissue that creates both a physical and chemical blockade to nerve regeneration.
When the injured organoids were treated with “dancing molecules,” a peptide‑based nanofiber therapy that recently received FDA Orphan Drug Designation, the neurons began to regrow and reconnect, and the amount of glial scar–like tissue was markedly reduced. Together, these changes closely mirrored the successful outcomes seen in a previous animal trial.
“After applying our therapy, the glial scar faded significantly to become barely detectable, and we saw neurites growing, resembling the axon regeneration we saw in animals. This is validation that our therapy has a good chance of working in humans,” said Northwestern’s Samuel I. Stupp, PhD, the study’s senior author and inventor of dancing molecules therapy.
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