Engineering ubx-based materials to promote and guide neovascularization

2019 Omnipress - All rights reserved. Atherosclerosis narrows arteries and reduces blood flow to the heart and other tissues. During angioplasty, stent deployment further damages the already injured artery, stimulating re-narrowing and/or clot formation, and increasing morbidity and mortality. Replacing the damaged inner lining of the artery with a fresh layer of healthy endothelial cells has the potential to prevent post-angioplasty complications, including restenosis and in-stent thrombosis. This approach requires coating stents with biomaterials that promote attachment and survival of endothelial cells. We have generated biocompatible and mechanically robust materials composed of the Drosophila melanogaster Hox transcription factor Ultrabithorax (Ubx) (Figure 1). Because Ubx materials self-assemble in mild buffers, we can covalently incorporate active functional proteins, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), through gene fusion. In addition to VEGF, which enhances endothelial cell adhesion, migration, and survival, we also created fusions with basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), which enhances EC migration and proliferation as well as promotes formation of capillary-like structures, and stromal cell derived factor 1a (SDF-1a), which promotes EC survival. Together, these growth factors support different aspects of neovascularization by ECs.

Transactions of the Annual Meeting of the Society for Biomaterials and the Annual International Biomaterials Symposium

Engineering ubx-based materials to promote and guide neovascularization Conference Paper