CBE Seminar: Anthony Weiss

“Elastic materials and enhanced wound repair”

The robust repair of large wounds and tissue defects relies on blood flow. This vascularization is the major challenge faced by tissue engineering on the path to forming thick, implantable tissue constructs. Without this vasculature, oxygen and nutrients cannot reach the cells located far from host blood vessels. To make viable constructs, tissue engineering takes advantage of the mechanical properties of synthetic materials, while combining them with extracellular matrix proteins to create a natural environment for the tissue- specific cells. Tropoelastin, the precursor of the elastin, is the extracellular matrix protein responsible for elasticity in diverse tissues, including robust blood vessels.     Tropoelastin contributes a physical role in elasticity but also substantially to the biology of repairing tissue. The emerging model from a range of our in vivo studies is that tropoelastin encodes direct biological effects and has the versatility to promote tissue repair. We have discovered that tropoelastin substantially improves healing by halving the time to repair full-thickness wounds in mice and pigs; tropoelastin elicits this response with early stage neo-angiogenesis, recruitment of endogenous cells with enhanced repair in two weeks consistently in these small and large animals. This potency is marked by the concerted appearance of blood vessels, neodermis and phased cellular contributions that work together to accelerate tissue repair.

Seminar Flyer_Anthony S. Weiss