SVF Combined With Functional Self-assembling Peptide Nanofiber Hydrogels in the Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe medical problem experienced by people worldwide with high mortality and long term morbidity. Although progress has been made in understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms of SCI, treatment and management protocols aimed at ameliorating neurologic damage in patients remain ineffective. Cells and biomaterials offer new hope for the treatment of SCI.

Up to now, there have been many studies on the treatment of SCI using cells and biomaterials. Stromal Vascular Fraction (SVF) is a heterogeneous mixture of cells obtained from adipose tissue. These cells include adipose-derived stem cells, endothelial cells, endothelial progenitor cells, pericytes, T cells, and other immune cells. SVF has strong self-renewal, proliferation and differentiation potential, it can replace necrotic cells and synthesize a variety of bioactive factors through paracrine and autocrine, activate cell and vascular regeneration pathways. Therefore, SVF shows significant advantages. The sequence of functional self-assembling peptide nanofiber hydrogels (hereinafter referred to as hydrogels) is HGF(RADA)4RIKVAV (H: histidine; G: Glycine; F: phenylalanine; R: arginine; A: Alanine; D: aspartic acid; I: isoleucine; K: Lysine; V: valerine). The hydrogel is based on the short peptide RADA16 ((RADA)4, which is already available in the product PuramatrixTM for clinical hemostasis and cell culture, but the aqueous solution of PuramatrixTM is acidic which harms cells and tissues upon direct contact. While the hydrogels in this study is pH neutral and does not harm cells and tissues. Articles published by the provider demonstrate that hydrogels can support 3D stem cell growth, have good biocompatibility in vivo (animal spinal cord), and promote neural regeneration after SCI. The chemical structure of the hydrogels is simple and clear, and the degradation product is amino acid. Therefore, SVF and the hydrogel from functional self-assembling peptide are combined for SCI repair in the study.


Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

1. Male or female adults, 18-60 years of age, with a clinical diagnosis of chronic traumatic SCI (≥ 3 months after SCI)
2. Neurological examination: ASIA-A
3. Both the spinal and neurological levels of injury were between T1-T12
4. Subjects must be able to read, write and complete visual analogue scale
5. Voluntarily signs and dates an informed Consent form, approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB)/Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), prior to any study-specific procedures.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Subjects with osteoporosis or had joint disease
2. Severe head injury
3. Severe pressure sore
4. Sign of kidney, cardiovascular, liver disorders
5. Subjects with internal medical and/or infectious diseases (including but not limited to Hepatitis B and HIV carriers)
6. Pregnant women or women at lactation stages
7. Medically or mentally unstable according to the judgment of the investigator
8. History of multiple sclerosis or peripheral demyelination
9. Any criteria which, in the opinion of the investigator, suggests that the subject would not be compliant with the study protocol