A team from the Madrid Institute of Materials Science (ICMM-CSIC) has managed to reconnect, in a rat model, a spinal cord that was completely severed at the thoracic level thanks to a three-dimensional foam created with Graphenea’s reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The work, which has been published in the journal Bioactive Materials, demonstrates the potential of this material for the treatment of spinal cord injuries, and opens up new avenues of research towards the cure of paraplegic patients in different stages of the disease.

When a spinal cord injury occurs, the cord is usually not completely severed; instead, injuries typically affect specific parts at one or more levels of the cord's extension. Nevertheless, this study aims to demonstrate that this material can enhance the reconnection of neural tissue, even in cases of complete injury. It was shown before that these foams generate a pro-reparative environment in the spinal cord of rats, but this time it was also done on an increased size of the lesion and a different spinal level.

Image: Repairing spinal cord in rat with graphene. Image from Zaforas et al, Bioactive Materials 47, 32 (2025). Licensed by CC BY 4.0.

What this group has achieved, in close collaboration with researchers from the National Hospital for Paraplegics in Toledo, has been to prepare a foam (called a 'scaffold') with reduced graphene oxide. rGO is subjected to heat treatment at 220ºC to eliminate the excess of oxygen groups and increase the chemical bonds between sheets, thereby achieving greater mechanical stability.

In this way, when the scaffold is placed in the spinal cord – in this case in a rat model with the spinal cord completely sectioned at the thoracic level – the researchers observe that a large number of blood vessels appear, which are essential for nourishing the new tissue, and neurites (the filaments that connect some neurons with others). This shows how the neurons that have survived in the area around the injury project their extensions through the scaffold and invade it in its entire 3D extension. All this, in addition, improves over time: the results are incipient after 10 days of implantation, but are much more promising after 4 months.

The rGO scaffolds promote the growth of more abundant and larger blood vessels, and more abundant, longer neurites, which are also more homogeneously distributed in the space of the injury.

Image: Representative photographs of a patient with complete thoracic paraplegia. Image from Zaforas et al, Bioactive Materials 47, 32 (2025). Licensed by CC BY 4.0.

In addition, the researchers have carried out electrophysiological recordings with which they have observed the response of the brain when the spinal cord is stimulated below the damaged area, and the results are more than revealing. A response in the brain was recorded, which confirmed not only that there is neural tissue crossing the scaffold, but that it reconnects with the brain. Specifically, the response is seen in the formation of reticular, an area of ​​great functional relevance for motor function.

Graphene has already shown potential for use in biological applications, such as in neuromorphic computing and biosensing. The present work highlights the potential of this material to make an impact on real life clinical needs to improve the lives of patients.