Advances of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells-based biomaterial scaffolds for oral and maxillofacial tissue engineering

The management of oral and maxillofacial tissue defects caused by tumors,trauma,and congenital or acquired deformities has been a major challenge for surgeons over the last few decades.Autologous tissue transplantation,the gold standard of tissue reconstruction,is a valid method for repairing the oral and maxillofacial functions and aesthetics.However,several limitations hinder its clinical applications including complications of donor sites,limited tissue volume,and uncertain long-term outcomes.Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells(ADMSCs)widely exist in adipose tissue and can be easily obtained through liposuction.Like the bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells(BMSCs),ADMSCs also have the multi-pluripotent potencies to differentiate into osteoblasts,chondrocytes,neurons,and myocytes.Therefore,the multilineage capacity of ADMSCs makes them valuable for cell-based medical therapies.In recent years,researchers have developed many candidates of ADMSCs-based biomaterial scaffolds to cater for the needs of oral and maxillofacial tissue engineering due to their superior performance.This review presents the advances and applications of ADMSCs-based biomaterial scaffolds,and explores their tissue engineering prospects in oral and maxillofacial reconstructions.

A Brief Summary of Current Therapeutic Strategies for Spinal Cord Injury

Spinal cord injury(SCI)is a tremendous disaster in a person’s life.It interrupts the brain-body neuronal circuits,resulting in functional deficits.Pathogenesis of SCI is a progressive and comprehensive event.In clinical trials,attempts to promote nerve regeneration and functional recovery after SCI have met with failures.Recently,with the development of transcriptome sequencing and biomaterials,researchers have struggled to explore novel efficient therapeutic treatments for SCI.Here,we summarize the recent pro-gress that has been made in SCI repair based on the lesion microenvironment,neural circuits,and bioma-terial scaffolds.We also propose several important directions for future research,including targeted-microRNA therapy,blood vessel interventions,and multiple treatment combinations.In short,we hope this review will enlighten researchers in the field and pave the way for SCI therapy.

Extracellular matrix from human umbilical cordderived mesenchymal stem cells as a scaffold for peripheral nerve regeneration

The extracellular matrix,which includes collagens,laminin,or fibronectin,plays an important role in peripheral nerve regeneration.Recently,a Schwann cell-derived extracellular matrix with classical biomaterial was used to mimic the neural niche.However,extensive clinical use of Schwann cells remains limited because of the limited origin,loss of an autologous nerve,and extended in vitro culture times.In the present study,human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells（h UCMSCs）,which are easily accessible and more proliferative than Schwann cells,were used to prepare an extracellular matrix.We identified the morphology and function of h UCMSCs and investigated their effect on peripheral nerve regeneration.Compared with a non-coated dish tissue culture,the h UCMSC-derived extracellular matrix enhanced Schwann cell proliferation,upregulated gene and protein expression levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor,glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor,and vascular endothelial growth factor in Schwann cells,and enhanced neurite outgrowth from dorsal root ganglion neurons.These findings suggest that the h UCMSC-derived extracellular matrix promotes peripheral nerve repair and can be used as a basis for the rational design of engineered neural niches.