A research team led by UCLA biomolecular engineers and doctors has demonstrated a therapeutic material that could one day promote better tissue regeneration following a wound or a stroke.
During the body’s typical healing process, when tissues like skin are damaged the body grows replacement cells. Integrins are class of proteins that are important in the cellular processes critical to creating new tissue. One of the processes is cell adhesion, when new cells “stick” to the materials between cells, called the extracellular matrix. Another is cell migration, where at the cell’s surface, integrins help “pull” the cell along through the extracellular matrix to move cells into place. However, these processes do not occur in brain tissue that has been damaged during a stroke. This is why scientists are trying to develop therapeutic materials that could promote this form of healing.
The injectable gel-like material, which is called a hydrogel, that the UCLA researchers developed helps this repair process by forming a scaffold inside the wound … read more
