@article {19842,
	title = {CNS regeneration after Ischemic Stroke: Injectable Multifunctional Hydrogels},
	journal = {TERM STEM/ FORECAST 2017},
	year = {2017},
	month = {2017-11-30 00:00:00},
	address = {Porto},
	abstract = {<p class="Default">Stroke is a leading cause of death worldwide, with a high disability rate in surviving patients. Ischemic stroke is an obstruction of brain{\textquoteright}s vascular structures, lack of blood supply and generalised cell death, together with an inflammatory reaction that further exacerbates the damage. Depending on vein, stroke{\textquoteright}s violence and time of treatment, patients can partly recover from stroke, whilst having neuronal impairments for life. Current treatments rely on clot/obstruction lysing or surgical retrieval, but only benefits some patients since the treatment must be performed a few hours after the stroke, leaving the rest of patients only with palliative care. There is a need for a novel regenerative therapy that restores brain function and promotes plasticity in the newly formed tissue. Stem cell-based therapies offer great potential for trophic support or cell replacement, but have low engraftment rate upon transplantation [1]. Biomaterials combined with molecules/cells can be utilized as carriers that fill the lesion{\textquoteright}s cavity (<em>in situ</em> gelification), protect transplanted cells from body clearance/hostile environment and promote their interaction with host cells. Natural hydrogels have inherent biological/chemical cues that produce specific cell responses (increased adhesion/proliferation) and allow to tailor their biological/physicochemical properties (harder/softer hydrogels, higher/lower degradation) to our purpose. Moreover, their 3D environment mimics brain tissue, supports cells{\textquoteright} engraftment/survival, are enzymatically/hydrolytically degraded upon new tissue formation and can be minimally invasive administrated (injected). Neurotrophic/angiogenic factors administration ameliorates the hostile microenvironment and promotes neural/vascular regeneration, their incorporation into Nanoparticles (NPs) increases stability and protects from enzymatic degradation, prolonging their therapeutic effect without needing systemic administrations [2]. Having this in mind, the proposed strategy focus on producing natural-based hydrogels and assessing their physicochemical properties (mechanical properties, viscosity, gelation time, permeability, weight loss/swelling and degradation rates). Afterwards, the produced hydrogels will be combined with Mesenchymal Stem Cells/Neural Stem Cells and/or carboxymethylchitosan/polyamidoamine-NPs (previously loaded with relevant growth factors), to obtain an injectable multifunctional hydrogel that will modulate the lesion{\textquoteright}s microenvironment and repair the stroke damage.</p>},
	keywords = {Biomaterials, Ischemic stroke, Stem cells, Tissue engineering},
	author = {Oliveira, E. P. and Silva-Correia, J. and Reis, R. L. and Oliveira, J. M.}
}
