User:Hilary Lynch/Library Sandbox/sandbox assignment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Neural tissue engineering is the use of artificial mechanisms to regenerate or replace central nervous system (CNS) or peripheral nervous system (PNS) tissues. The need for neural tissue engineering arises from the difficulty of the nerve cells and neural tissues regenerate on their own after neural damage. The PNS has some, but limited, regeneration of neural cells. Though adult stem cell neurogenesis in the CNS was generally thought to not occur, but it has been found to occur in the the hippocampus, the subventricular zone (SVZ), and spinal cord, nerve regeneration. [1] These CNS injuries can be caused by stroke, neurodegenerative disorders, trauma, or encephalopathy. A few methods currently being investigated to treat CNS injuries are: implanting stem cells directly into the injury site, delivering morphogens to the injury site, or growing neural tissue in vitro with neural stem or progenitor cells in a 3D scaffold. [2] For the PNS, a severed nerve can be reconnected and reinnervated via grafts or guidance of the existing nerve through a channel. [3]
Recent research into creating miniature cortexes, known as corticopoiesis, and brain models, known as cerebral organoids, are exciting potential techniques the field of neural tissue regeneration. The native cortical progenitors in corticopoiesis are neural tissues that could be effectively embedded into the brain.[4] Cerebral organoids are 3D human pluripotent stem cells developed into sections of the brain cortex, which show that there is a potential to isolate and develop certain neural tissues using neural progenitors. [5] Research into the innervation of PNS neurons in patients with paralysis and prosthetics may add to the knowledge of reinnervation of neural tissue in the PNS and the CNS. [6]This research is capable of making one difficult aspect of neural tissue engineering, the functional innervation of neural tissue, more manageable.