Molina-Peña, RodolfoFerreira, Natália HelenRoy, CharlotteRoncali, LorisNajberg, MathieAvril, SylvieZarur, MarianaBourgeois, WilliamFerreirós, AlbaLucchi, ChiaraCavallieri, FrancescoHindré, FrançoisTosi, GiovaniBiagini, GiuseppeValzania, FrancoBerger, FrançoisAbal, MiguelRousseau, AudreyBoury, FrankÁlvarez Lorenzo, CarmenGarcion, Emmanuel2024-03-052024-03-052023Acta Biomaterialia Volume 173, 1 January 2024, Pages 261-2821742-7061http://hdl.handle.net/10347/32984In view of inevitable recurrences despite resection, glioblastoma (GB) is still an unmet clinical need. Dealing with the stromal-cell derived factor 1-alpha (SDF-1α)/CXCR4 axis as a hallmark of infiltrative GB tumors and with the resection cavity situation, the present study described the effects and relevance of a new engineered micro-nanostructured SF-HA-Hep aerogel sponges, made of silk fibroin (SF), hyaluronic acid (HA) and heparin (Hep) and loaded with SDF-1α, to interfere with the GB ecosystem and residual GB cells, attracting and confining them in a controlled area before elimination. 70 µm-pore sponges were designed as an implantable scaffold to trap GB cells. They presented shape memory and fit brain cavities. Histological results after implantation in brain immunocompetent Fischer rats revealed that SF-HA-Hep sponges are well tolerated for more than 3 months while moderately and reversibly colonized by immuno-inflammatory cells. The use of human U87MG GB cells overexpressing the CXCR4 receptor (U87MG-CXCR4+) and responding to SDF-1α allowed demonstrating directional GB cell attraction and colonization of the device in vitro and in vivo in orthotopic resection cavities in Nude rats. Not modifying global survival, aerogel sponge implantation strongly shaped U87MG-CXCR4+ tumors in cavities in contrast to random infiltrative growth in controls. Overall, those results support the interest of SF-HA-Hep sponges as modifiers of the GB ecosystem dynamics acting as “cell meeting rooms” and biocompatible niches whose properties deserve to be considered toward the development of new clinical procedures.eng© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Acta Materialia Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND licenseAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Resection cavityImplantable deviceCancer cell trapChemoattractionEcosystem dynamicCell homingjournal article10.1016/j.actbio.2023.10.022open access