Bioactive delivery systems for nerve regeneration

The goal of this research is to develop drug delivery systems that can be controlled by cellular activity during nerve regeneration. We utilize heparin-binding affinity to sequester growth factors within heparin-containing fibrin matrices. These affinity-immobilized growth factors can be released based on active, cellular degradation of the matrix rather than by passive, diffusion-based release and allow us to control growth factor delivery over the entire time course of tissue regeneration. This approach to bioactive delivery has been shown to promote nerve regeneration comparable to nerve allograft in rat sciatic nerve transection models.