Reducing brain damage in traumatic brain injury by using sugar-based implant

TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) is a major cause of death and disability. TBI survivors usually suffer from motoric or cognitive deficiencies. As known, the brain has limited ability to recover; one reason is the glial scar. The human body first reaction aimed at stopping bleeding and preventing deterioration is glial scar, but it also causes disconnections in the brain tissue. Glial scar does not have a negative effect in most body areas. In contrast, in the brain it prevents the creation of new connections and eventually the recovery of the damaged area. The glial scar blocks the access of new cells to the injury cavity and therefor complete physical and functional recovery is prevented. Today, all treatments deals with injury symptoms, but do not solve the problem itself. Our lab approach is to utilize tissue engineering. We used a special implant, which aimed to brake the glial scar and restore the lost connectivity by supporting creation of new connections between two parts of an injury. It enables migration of active cells to the injury cavity, thus bringing back lost capabilities.Behavioral and histologic tests conducted on mice. The behavioral tests found that implantation of X-implant in Q-pTBI brain injury results decreased levels of anxiety in mice and improvement of memory and learning abilities of mice. The histological tests supports the findings above, and shows cells migration to injury cavity and renewal of connections between two parts of the injury.