Chen Yidan, Kinoshita Seth, Yan Emily, Hao Min, Shen Hua, Gelberman Richard, Thomopoulos Stavros, Xia Younan
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Mater Interfaces. 2024;1(1):35-46. doi: 10.53941/mi.2024.100001. Epub 2024 Oct 18.
Flexor tendon injuries are common and often require surgical repair and prolonged rehabilitation. Successful clinical outcomes depend on the concurrent suppression of adhesions (caused by inflammation) at the tendon surface and promotion of matrix synthesis inside the tendon. Herein, we report a bi-directional and bi-temporal drug delivery system designed to target both the initial inflammatory phase and the subsequent proliferative and remodeling phases of healing to improve outcomes after flexor tendon repair. The system features a multi-layered design with anti-adhesion and pro-matrix factors encapsulated in separate layers of hyaluronate films crosslinked to different degrees to control their direction and rate of release. After validating drug delivery under controlled release, cell culture experiments involving tendon fibroblasts and a Transwell system are conducted to demonstrate the system's efficacy in modulating local cellular responses. The promising results from this study lay the groundwork for moving this system toward in vivo testing and clinical translation.
屈肌腱损伤很常见，通常需要手术修复和长期康复。成功的临床结果取决于同时抑制肌腱表面的粘连（由炎症引起）和促进肌腱内部的基质合成。在此，我们报告了一种双向和双时相给药系统，旨在针对愈合的初始炎症阶段以及随后的增殖和重塑阶段，以改善屈肌腱修复后的结果。该系统采用多层设计，抗粘连和促基质因子封装在不同交联程度的透明质酸膜的不同层中，以控制它们的释放方向和速率。在验证控释条件下的药物递送后，进行了涉及肌腱成纤维细胞和Transwell系统的细胞培养实验，以证明该系统在调节局部细胞反应方面的功效。这项研究的有希望的结果为将该系统推向体内测试和临床转化奠定了基础。
