Lecture 23 - Scaffolds for Drug/Growth Factor Delivery

Question 1

In Vitro/In Vivo Tissue Regeneration

Answer 1

• Cells + scaffold —> engineered organ (in vitro) —> implant
• Cells at injury site —> implant
• Scaffold at injury site —> implant (to be effective want to elute chemicals to bring specific cells to scene, elute growth factors to promote healing)

Question 2

Scaffold

Answer 2

• Most organs have ECM that give shape/function
• Act as surrogate ECM (natural scaffolding)
• Cell organization
• Chemical queues
• Mechanotransduction

Question 3

Scaffolds: Guiding Repair

Answer 3

Scaffold can help guide repair by:

• Recruiting cells to the site
• Acting as a scaffold to allow for regeneration of new tissue (can guide organization, cell phenotype)
• Acting as a reservoir of growth factors or drugs (can direct cell phenotype, can influence cell proliferation and ECM deposition, can control inflammation (not too much for too long) during the healthy process)

Question 4

Scaffolds: Bone Repair

Answer 4

• Transplantation —> cells, engineered bone, auto/allograft
• Encourage new bone generation —> need new ECM, factors to stimulate growth
• In situ (better quality, less likely infection)

Question 5

Drug Eluting Polymer Applications

Answer 5

• Anti-cancer therapy
• Stents —> polymer coated metallic stents releasing drug to reduce thrombosis formation and restenosis of vessel (don’t want plaque to form and don’t want it to close vessel)