A Neurocompliant Ionic Conductive Hydrogel Orchestrates Glial and Vascular Remodeling to Mitigate Traumatic Brain Injury

A single intracerebral dose of the choline-based bioionic liquid hydrogel FiBGel in a traumatic brain injury model halves reactive astrogliosis and limits lesion cavity expansion.

• Why it matters: Conductive neural scaffolds are limited by cytotoxicity and poor mechanical matching, and traumatic brain injury requires coordinated control of glial, immune, and vascular remodeling.
• What they did: The team grafted choline-based bioionic liquids onto fish gelatin to form FiBGel, tuning conductivity to 0.25–0.68 S/m and stiffness to 0.6–0.9 kPa, then tested it in 3D culture and an intracerebral traumatic brain injury model.
• The result: FiBGel shows biocompatibility and immunomodulation, drives ~90% MAP2+ neurons with calcium signaling, supports endothelial network formation, and in vivo reduces reactive astrogliosis while enhancing cortical revascularization and restricting lesion cavity growth.

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