A Therapeutic Strategy for Spinal Cord Defect: Human Dental Follicle Cells Combined with Aligned PCL/PLGA Electrospun Material

Figure 5

Implantation of graft and histologic analysis. (a) A 2 mm × 10 mm piece of aligned electrospun PCL/PLGA material was rolled and used for implantation; red arrow (a) showed the direction of its mainstream fibers. The graft just fitted the defect (b) and, after 8 weeks, the graft was coupled in the spinal cord (c); red arrows (b, c) indicate the graft and the direction of mainstream fibers. HE staining was undertaken in SCD group (d–g), AEM-hDFCs group (h–k), and AEM group (l–o). In longitudinal sections (d–f, h–j, l–n), especially in the injured site (f) and in the graft (j, n), it is shown that cellular direction in graft is obviously clearer than that in injured site without graft being transplanted. (g, k, o) Transverse section was also stained for its structure observation; red arrow (k, o) showed the graft. (p–s) A stream of fibers (red arrows in (p) and (s)) passed through the AEM and immunofluorescent staining showed these fibers were positive for NF200 (q–s). Scale bar = 100 μm.

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