BACKGROUND: In recent years, with the development of basic research, the new method and the new strateg its have been used for repairing spinal cord injury. The development of tissue engineering provides a new approach. The method of tissue engineering to treat spinal cord injury has gradually become a new research hotspot.
OBJECTIVE: To explore the progress of tissue engineering scaffolds in treating spinal cord injury.
METHODS: A retrieval was performed for the papers regarding tissue engineering scaffolds for spinal cord injury, using key words of “tissue engineering, spinal cord injury, scaffold material, collagen, chitosan, alginate hydrogel, fibrin glue, poly-b-hydroxybutyrate, agarose, poly lactic acid, synthetic hydrogels, polyethylene glycol” in Science Citation Index (SCI) database.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Tissue engineering scaffolds play an important role in the tissue engineering to repair spinal cord injury. The tissue engineering scaffold materials include natural materials and synthetic materials. The natural materials have the cell capacity and tissue compatibility, and the synthetic polymer scaffolds have a great advantage in the structure, shape, mechanical strength and large-scale production. In recent years, the tissue engineering scaffold material in spinal cord injury have made a significant progress, and in the novel scaffold materials have appeared.