New implant offers hope for nerve repair after spinal cord injury

A research team at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has developed a new implant that transmits electrical signals and may have the potential to promote the repair of nerve cells (neurons) after a spinal cord injury.

Details of the implant and how it performs in laboratory experiments have just been published in the journal Opens in new window. Materials today.

Until now, it has been extremely difficult to promote the regrowth of neurons after spinal cord injury, which represents a major obstacle in developing successful treatments for such debilitating injuries. Our research represents a promising new approach that may have potential for treating spinal cord injuries.”

Professor Fergal O'Brien, Deputy Chancellor for Research and Innovation and Professor of Bioengineering and Regenerative Medicine at RCSI and Head of RCSI's Tissue Engineering Research Group (TERG)

Spinal cord injury is a devastating and often debilitating condition. One person in Ireland suffers a spinal cord injury every week and there are over 2,300 people and families living with a spinal cord injury across Ireland. After the injury, the long axonal projections of nerve cells are severed and 'die' at the site of the injury. At the same time, a lesion or gap forms at the wound, preventing their regrowth, which is necessary to restore function.

To solve this complex problem, the research team from RCSI's TERG and the SFI Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) Centre at Trinity College Dublin developed an implantable, electrically conductive, 3D printed scaffold that can be placed directly at the site of injury, thus closing the gap.

Professor O'Brien, who is also deputy director of AMBER, sees the implant as a new approach. “Bridging the injury with an electrically conductive biomaterial that mimics the structure of the spinal cord, combined with the application of electrical stimulation, may help injured neurons to regrow their axons and reconnect to restore function,” he said, adding: “There is no platform like this to date.”

Promising results

When the implant is electrically stimulated, it can transmit this electrical signal to encourage the injured axons to regrow. At the same time, the implant's scaffold and channels are designed to act as a bridge, instructing the axons to regrow in the correct formation.

When researchers tested the implant in the laboratory, they saw promising results.

“We saw that when we applied electrical stimulation to the neurons growing on this scaffold for a week, they developed long, healthy extensions called neurites. In the body, this type of growth would be an important step in repair and recovery after injury,” said Liam Leahy, lead author of the study and a PhD student at RCSI.

Head of Research

For the project, RCSI and AMBER researchers partnered with the Irish Rugby Football Union Charitable Trust (IRFU-CT) and assembled a Spinal Cord Injury Advisory Group to oversee and guide the research. This group included clinicians, people with spinal cord injury and researchers from the Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) field.

“This advisory group provided valuable insight into the reality of spinal cord injury and potential treatment strategies,” says Leahy. Through regular meetings and laboratory visits, the advisory group has followed the work from its inception to the current publication and produced two separate publications on the role of public and patient involvement in preclinical research.”

The implant project was supported by the Irish Rugby Football Union Charitable Trust, the Science Foundation Ireland Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) Centre and the Irish Research Council and the research results were recently presented at the TERMIS World Congress in Seattle, Washington, USA.