A research team led by Professor Kim Gyo-beom of Dongguk University’s Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering has developed the latest technology for joint tissue regeneration via simultaneous delivery of therapeutic growth factors and adi-pose derived stem cells into the body.
The work was published in the Journal of Controlled Release (Impact Factor: 7.727, JCR Ranking Top 5%), an international journal in the field of biomaterials and biotechnolo-gy.
Human hands have very small joints that are difficult to fix after a trauma or a disease. Image credit: Luisfi via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The research led by Professor Kim increased the stability of a growth factor that in-duced cell activity in knee joint tissue by enclosing it within a polymer structure. Its effectiveness was demonstrated in a subsequent animal experiment in which the en-closed growth factor and stem cells were transplanted into damaged joint tissue in rabbits.
Professor Kim said, “Results from this research show the technological value of the composite tissue engineering platform material developed in the Cellular Tissue Engi-neering and Functional Materials Laboratory of the Department of Chemical and Bio-medical Engineering, which combines an implantable hydrogel that was developed and a polymer-based drug delivery structure for the delivery of therapeutic growth fac-tors. We demonstrated that it can effectively induce regeneration in damaged joint tis-sues in knee osteoarthritis patients in preclinical experiments.”
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