The potential of hydrogels as a niche for promoting neurogenesis and regulating neuroinflammation in ischemic stroke

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability and a severe social and economic burden. After ischemic stroke, the central nervous system (CNS) microenvironment at the site of injury is often inflam-matory and inhibitory, which limits endogenous neurogenesis and regeneration. Current treatments fail to promote recovery in disabled survivors because of the poor regenerative capacity of the CNS, and thus there is an urgent need to develop biomaterials that create a microenvironment that is conducive to neu-rogenesis. Injectable hydrogels that mimic native properties hold great potential for tissue repair. Hydrogels alone or in combination with other therapeutics can remodel the hostile stroke microenviron-ment by modulating neuroinflammation to promote exogenous and endogenous regenerative repair pro-cesses. In this review, we discuss the pathophysiology and current treatment approaches for brain repair and functional recovery in ischemic stroke, and then provide an overview of the potential of hydrogels in stroke treatment. We also offer our perspective on the clinical translation of hydrogels, with the aim of advancing the ischemic stroke field.(c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Ischemic stroke is a major cause of long-term disability and a significant social and economic burden. Current treatments are ineffective in promoting CNS regeneration, highlighting the urgent need to develop biomaterials that facilitate neurogenesis. Injectable hydrogels show great potential in tissue repair by modulating neuroinflammation to create a conducive microenvironment for regenerative processes.