Application potential of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSCs) based tissue-engineering for spinal cord defect repair in rat fetuses with spina bifida aperta

Spina bifida aperta are complex congenital malformations resulting from failure of fusion in the spinal neural tube during embryogenesis. Despite surgical repair of the defect, most patients who survive with spina bifida aperta have a multiple system handicap due to neuron deficiency of the defective spinal cord. Tissue engineering has emerged as a novel treatment for replacement of lost tissue. This study evaluated the prenatal surgical approach of transplanting a chitosan–gelatin scaffold seeded with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) in the healing the defective spinal cord of rat fetuses with retinoic acid induced spina bifida aperta. Scaffold characterisation revealed the porous structure, organic and amorphous content. This biomaterial promoted the adhesion, spreading and in vitro viability of the BMSCs. After transplantation of the scaffold combined with BMSCs, the defective region of spinal cord in rat fetuses with spina bifida aperta at E20 decreased obviously under stereomicroscopy, and the skin defect almost closed in many fetuses. The transplanted BMSCs in chitosan–gelatin scaffold survived, grew and expressed markers of neural stem cells and neurons in the defective spinal cord. In addition, the biomaterial presented high biocompatibility and slow biodegradation in vivo. In conclusion, prenatal transplantation of the scaffold combined with BMSCs could treat spinal cord defect in fetuses with spina bifida aperta by the regeneration of neurons and repairmen of defective region.     

Testing Transverse Sensitivity of Linear Single-Axis Pendulous Accelerometer with Double Turntable Centrifuge

Current ISO standard methods for testing transverse sensitivity of accelerometers are vibration-based. They have difficulties in producing low-frequency vibration for various reasons. This paper introduces a double turntable centrifuge (DTC) to test the accelerometer transverse sensitivity at low frequencies (from 0.01 to 10 Hz). The proposed method can avoid limitations of traditional vibration-based schemes for transverse sensitivity test. In this paper, a theoretical analysis of the method is followed by a presentation of the experimental set-up, and the measurement procedure of a linear single-axis pendulous accelerometer. According to the theoretical analysis and experimental results, it is practicable to test the low-frequency transverse sensitivity with a DTC. The method proposed here can test accelerometer transverse sensitivity at low-frequency with large amplitudes (up to 700 m/s²), and directly measure the angle of the transverse sensitivity with high resolution. It can be a supplement to the standard methods for testing accelerometer transverse sensitivity at low-frequency.