Cells in gels
The Drug Delivery and Tissue Engineering Division recently published the following article in
Advanced Materials:
Biodegradable Thermoresponsive Microparticle Dispersions for Injectable Cell Delivery Prepared Using a Single-Step Process
Wenxin Wang, He Liang, Racha Cheikh Al Ghanami, Lloyd Hamilton, Michael Fraylich, Kevin M. Shakesheff, Brian Saunders, Cameron Alexander
Published Online: Feb 19 2009 8:28AM
Lay summary:
A collaboration between researchers at Manchester Materials Science (led by Dr Brian Saunders) and the School of Pharmacy (led by Professors Cameron Alexander and Kevin Shakesheff) has led to a new method for delivering cells in an injectable form for tissue engineering applications. The key to the new system, reported in the leading journal Advanced Materials, is a suspension containing polymer chains on biodegradable microparticles, which is free-flowing at room-temperature, but which solidifies at body temperature to form a support matrix around co-injected cells. This could potentially enable a clinician to inject cell-polymer mixtures rapidly into a wound or disease site such that it quickly seals in place, allowing the cells to grow and heal the wound/defect while providing physical support from the polymer particles. Furthermore, the particles, which can be tuned to biodegrade at different rates for different applications, could encapsulate growth factors or other agents capable of speeding up tissue repair or preventing infection.