Image-Guided Resection of Glioblastoma and Intracranial Implantation of Therapeutic Stem Cell-seeded Scaffolds

The overall goal of this procedure is to surgically resect brain cancer in mice and to implant a scaffold seeded with tumor-homing therapeutic stem cells into the postoperative resection cavity. This method can help answer key questions in the cell therapy and neuro-oncology fields, such as how surgical resection affects cell implantation into the surgical cavity, how effective new therapeutic agents are on postsurgical brain cancer, and how scaffold-based delivery systems influence therapeutic outcomes. The main advantage of this technique is that brain cancer interventions can be studied in mice in a way that closely mimics the clinical standard of care in human patients.

Though this method can provide insight into stem cell therapy delivered on scaffold, it can also be applied to other interventions, such as nanoparticles, small molecules, oncolytic viruses, or other emerging therapies. Prepare the scaffolds 48 hours prior to implantation in mice by first cutting PLA scaffolds into resection cavity-sized pieces of approximately two by two millimeters. Sterilize the scaffolds by immersing in 70%ethanol for 15 minutes.