{"id":234,"date":"2021-06-19T11:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T09:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.unipi.it\/vittoria_raffa\/?page_id=234"},"modified":"2025-08-19T10:39:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T08:39:42","slug":"wingforlife-2021","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.unipi.it\/vittoria_raffa\/wingforlife-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"WingforLife 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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STRETCH-GROWTH AND CELL THERAPY: A NOVEL COMBINATORIAL APPROACH FOR TREATING SPINAL CORD INJURIES<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spinal cord injury (SCI), the stimulation of the axonal regeneration of the injured resident neurons represents a big challenge. The transplantation of neural precursor cells (NPCs) has been also proposed to replace lost or injured neurons but the efficiency of their spontaneous maturation into mature neurons and integration into the existing spinal milieu is often sub-optimal. Recently, our team has demonstrated that the application of extremely low mechanical forces strongly stimulates axonal out-growth and maturation of  neurons and NPCs. However, the use of mechanical forces, alone or in combination with other approaches, to accelerate the regeneration process in vivo has been never investigated because of the lack of enabling technologies. Recently, we developed a new nanotechnology-based tool for stretching axons in vivo. Specifically, our team demonstrated that magnetic nanoparticles can be uptaken by neurons with no damage, thus making these cells responsive to the application of external magnetic fields. The ensuing extremely low mechanical force dramatically stimulates axon elongation and neuron maturation. Our idea is to stretch the resident injured axons for stimulating them to elongate and to cross the lesion gap. Simultaneously, we would also stretch NPCs – transplanted into the lesion site – in order to propel their differentiation into a neuronal lineage, thereby bridging or circumventing the lesion area, by creating a relay circuit. We hope that this combinatorial approach will stimulate the regeneration of damaged spinal cord circuits to enhance recovery of limb function in SCI models <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MAIN COLLABORATIONS <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco Onorati, UNIPI, IT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marco Mainardi, CNR; IT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mario Costa, CNR, IT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PUBLICATIONS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconieri A., Da Palmata L., Cappello V., Schmidt T.J.N., Folino P., Storti B., Bizzarri R., Raffa V. The Extremely Low Mechanical Force Generated by Nano-Pulling Induces Global Changes in the Microtubule Network, Nuclear Morphology, and Chromatin Transcription in Neurons. (2025) Small, DOI: 10.1002\/smll.202503011<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconieri A., Coppini A., Raffa V. Microtubules as a signal hub for axon growth in response to mechanical force (2024) Biological Chemistry, 405 (1), pp. 67 \u2013 77 DOI: 10.1515\/hsz-2023-0173<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merighi F., De Vincentiis S., Onorati M., Raffa V. Long-term Mouse Spinal Cord Organotypic Slice Culture as a Platform for Validating Cell Transplantation in Spinal Cord Injury (2024) Journal of Visualized Experiments , 2024 (206), art. no. e66704 DOI: 10.3791\/66704<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconieri A., Folino P., Da Palmata L., Raffa V. Nano-pulling stimulates axon regeneration in dorsal root ganglia by inducing stabilization of axonal microtubules and activation of local translation (2024) Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience, 17, art. no. 1340958 DOI: 10.3389\/fnmol.2024.1340958<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Falconieri A., De Vincentiis S., Cappello V., Convertino D., Das R., Ghignoli S., Figoli S., Luin S., Catal\u00e0-Castro F., Marchetti L., Borello U., Krieg M., Raffa V.<\/strong> Axonal plasticity in response to active forces generated through magnetic nano-pulling (2023) Cell Reports, 42 (1), art. no. 111912. DOI: 10.1016\/j.celrep.2022.111912<\/p>\n\n\n\n

De Vincentiis S., Baggiani M., Merighi F., Cappello V., Lopane J., Di Caprio M., Costa M., Mainardi M., Onorati M., Raffa V.<\/strong> Low Forces Push the Maturation of Neural Precursors into Neurons (2023) Small, 19 (30), art. no. 2205871. DOI: 10.1002\/smll.202205871<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raffa, V. Force: A messenger of axon outgrowth (2022) Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, DOI: 10.1016\/j.semcdb.2022.07.004<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STRETCH-GROWTH AND CELL THERAPY: A NOVEL COMBINATORIAL APPROACH FOR TREATING SPINAL CORD INJURIES In spinal cord injury (SCI), the stimulation…<\/p>\n

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