Tissue regeneration hydrogels

Lutolf MP, Lauer-Fields JL, Schmoekel HG et al (2003) Synthetic matrix metalloproteinase-sensitive hydrogels for the conduction of tissue regeneration Engineering cell-invasion characteristics. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100 5413-5418... 

Stile RA. Healy KE (2001) Thermo-responsive peptide-modified hydrogels for tissue regeneration. BioMacromolecules 2 185-194... 

FIGURE 13.8 Monomer 39 is used to prepare cyclic polyacetal hydrogels such as 42 for potential use in tissue regeneration applications [125,132]. 

H. Tan, J.P. Rubin, K.G. Marra, Injectable in situ forming biodegradable chitosan-hyaluronic add based hydrogels for adipose tissue regeneration. Organogenesis 6 (2010) 173-180. 

An alternative to cell delivery per se is to attract endogenous stem cells and precursor cells to the defect site for de novo tissue regeneration. Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) induces migration of MSCs in vitro but is rapidly degraded by proteolysis in vivo. Extended, localized delivery of HGF was achieved with Heprasil sECM hydrogels, and the sECM composition could be optimized for controlled release of HGF that resulted in recruitment of human bone marrow MSCs into the scaffold in vitro (Zhao et al, 2008). 

Interconnection of pores is of vital importance for cell ingrowths in future applications to tissue regeneration. This feature was tested by the permeability of the whole hydrogels for different kinds of microspheres under two microscopic observations. First, cross sections of the frozen hydrogels filled with microspheres were observed in LVSEM. Second, the water-swollen hydrogels were flowed through by a suspension of microspheres in water and their dried cross sections were then viewed in HVSEM. 

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