Bladder Tissue Regeneration Strategy Developed Using Anti-inflammatory Nanomolecules

An inflammatory response acts as a protective mechanism to enable repair and regeneration, helping the body to heal after injuries such as wounds and burns. However, the same mechanism may impede healing in instances in which foreign material is introduced, for example, when synthetics are grafted to skin for dermal repair. In such cases, the inflammation may lead to tissue fibrosis, which creates an obstacle to effective physiologic function.

The research group of Arun Sharma, PhD, from the Stanford School of Medicine (CA, USA), has been working on novel strategies on tissue regeneration to improve the lives of patients with urinary bladder dysfunction. Among their developments was a medical model for regenerating bladders using stem cells harvested from a donor’s own bone marrow. The researchers reported these findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in 2013.

More recently, the scientists have developed a system that may protect against the inflammatory reaction that can negatively impact tissue growth, development, and function. Self-assembling peptide amphiphiles (PAs) are biocompatible and biodegradable nanomaterials that have demonstrated utility in a wide range of settings and applications. Using an established urinary bladder augmentation model, the investigators treated a highly pro-inflammatory biologic scaffold used in a wide array of settings with anti-inflammatory peptide amphiphiles (AIF-PAs). When compared with control PAs, the treated scaffold showed regenerative capacity while modulating the innate inflammatory response, resulting in superior bladder function.

The study’s findings are slated to be published in the November 2014 issue of the journal Biomaterials. “Our findings are very relevant not just for bladder regeneration but for other types of tissue regeneration where foreign materials are utilized for structural support. I also envision the potential utility of these nanomolecules for the treatment of a wide range of dysfunctional inflammatory based conditions,” concluded Dr. Sharma.

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Stanford School of Medicine