Abstract: To repair the brain of adult rats with traumatic brain injury by inducing neural regeneration with biological scaffolds. Methods 52 adult male Wistar rats were divided into control group, lesion group, blank chitosan carriers group and bioactive material scaffolds group. The neural regeneration and the origin of the newborn neurons in the injury area were detected through histochemistry, immumochemistry and neural tracing on the 3rd day, 7th day, 2nd week, 4th week, 2nd month and 3rd month after operation. Results After application of bioactive material scaffolds, the BrdU⁺/Nestin⁺ and BrdU⁺/Dcx⁺ cells in gyrus dentatus (DG) of hippocampus and subventricular zone (SVZ) were significantly more than those of the other groups. The BrdU⁺/Nestin⁺, BrdU⁺/Dcx⁺ and BrdU⁺/MAP2⁺ neural cells in injury area of the bioactive material scaffolds group were significantly more than those of the other groups. After application of DiI to label the SVZ cells, DiI⁺/NeuN⁺ neurons were observed in the injury areas. Conclusion Bioactive material scaffolds can activate the neural stem cells in SVZ and DG. The neural stem cells in SVZ can migrate to the injury area and then differentiate into mature neurons.

Key words: brain injury, bioactive material scaffolds, neural stem cells, neural regeneration, migrate, differentiation, rats