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Chemical engineering approach to regenerative medicine

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Abstract

The intrinsically multi-factorial pathological trend of spinal cord injury is probably the most important reason behind the absence of efficient therapeutic strategies. Therefore, recent studies suggest the use of new tools combining the delivery of both cells and drugs. Systems which are able to perform multiple controlled delivery of different therapeutic agents have gained particularly strong interest. Hence, in order to avoid trial and error approaches, several studies were performed following the classic chemical engineering multiscale approach: tuning microchemistry to manipulate macro properties in order to satisfy specific medical needs as injectability, low stress on target tissues, ability to retain liquids, capability of carrying living cells, and possibility to control the delivery of drugs. In this framework we focused on injectable agarose-carbomer based hydrogels applying he results of our studies performed in the past two years: in vitro biocompatibility, physical chemical studies, drug delivery transport phenomena investigation, and in vivo biocompatibility in uninjured Brainbow mice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Materials, and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta”, Politecnico di Milano, via Mancinelli 7, 20131, Milano, Italy

    Giuseppe Perale, Filippo Rossi & Maurizio Masi

  2. Department of Neuroscience, the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research, via La Masa 19, 20156, Milano, Italy

    Pietro Veglianese

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  1. Giuseppe Perale
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  2. Filippo Rossi
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  3. Pietro Veglianese
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  4. Maurizio Masi
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Correspondence to Filippo Rossi.

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Perale, G., Rossi, F., Veglianese, P. et al. Chemical engineering approach to regenerative medicine. Chem. Pap. 66, 108–119 (2012). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11696-011-0111-5

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