Injury to the peripheral nervous system (PNS) and central nervous system (CNS) may result in severe functional loss. Spontaneous regeneration is limited to small lesions within the injured PNS and is actively suppressed within the CNS. In this chapter we discuss the pathology and changes in the physiological environment following PNS/CNS injury. Several key factors such as the glial scar and in...

Biodegradable nanofibers produced by electrospinning represent a new class of promising scaffolds to support nerve regeneration. We begin with a brief discussion on the electrospinning of nanofibers and methods for controlling the structure, porosity, and alignment of the electrospun nanofibers. The methods include control of the nanoscale morphology and microscale alignment of the nanofibers, ...

Traumatic injury to the central nervous system triggers cell death and deafferentation, which may activate a cascade of cellular and network disturbances. These events often result in the formation of irregularly shaped lesions comprised of necrotic tissue and/or a fluid-filled cavity. Tissue engineering represents a promising treatment strategy for the injured neural tissue. To facilitate mini...

The use of biomaterials processed by the electrospinning technique has gained considerable interest for neural tissue engineering applications. The tissue engineering strategy is to facilitate the regrowth of nerves by combining an appropriate cell type with the electrospun scaffold. Electrospinning can generate fibrous meshes having fiber diameter dimensions at the nanoscale and these fibers c...

Central nervous system (CNS) regeneration with central neuronal connections and restoration of synaptic connections has been a long-standing worldwide problem and, to date, no effective clinical therapies are widely accepted for CNS injuries. The limited regenerative capacity of the CNS results from the growth-inhibitory environment that impedes the regrowth of axons. Central neural tissue engi...

Hyaline cartilage is a vascular and neural tissue with scanty chondrocytes and limited regenerative ability. After some serious injuries of the cartilage, healing process will take place through the formation of fibrocartilage structures. Currently, tissue engineering and cell therapy are 2 interesting therapeutic fields dealing with regenerative medicine. In this regard, tissue&...

Regeneration of neural injuries by formation of new axons and myelination to improve quality of patient life is undeniable difficulty in the world in which scientists examined different strategies from ancient times. Recently, 3D tissue engineering scaffolds simulated original extracellular matrix (ECM) and provide desirable substrate for cellular attachment, proliferation and differentiation. ...