Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
  • Press Releases
  • Media Coverage
  • Podcasts
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Tissue Regeneration Using Anti-inflammatory Nanomolecules
Scientific Advances

Tissue Regeneration Using Anti-inflammatory Nanomolecules

By Peggy MurphyAug 21, 2014
Share
Facebook Twitter Email
Arun Sharma, PhD, research assistant professor in Urology, has been working on innovative approaches to tissue regeneration to improve the lives of patients with urinary bladder dysfunction.

Anyone who has suffered an injury can probably remember the after-effects, including pain, swelling or redness. These are signs that the body is fighting back against the injury. When tissue in the body is damaged, biological programs are activated to aid in tissue regeneration. An inflammatory response acts as a protective mechanism to enable repair and regeneration, helping the body to heal after injuries such as wounds and burns.

However, the same mechanism may interfere with healing in situations in which foreign material is introduced, for example when synthetics are grafted to skin for dermal repair. In such cases, the inflammation may lead to tissue fibrosis, which creates an obstacle to proper physiological function.

The research group of Arun Sharma, PhD, research assistant professor in Urology, has been working on innovative approaches to tissue regeneration to improve the lives of patients with urinary bladder dysfunction. Among their breakthroughs was a medical model for regenerating bladders using stem cells harvested from a donor’s own bone marrow, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in 2013.

More recently, the team has developed a system that may protect against the inflammatory reaction that can negatively impact tissue growth, development and function. Self-assembling peptide amphiphiles (Pas) are biocompatible and biodegradable nanomaterials that have demonstrated utility in a wide range of settings and applications.

Using an established urinary bladder augmentation model, Sharma’s group treated a highly pro-inflammatory biologic scaffold used in a wide array of settings with anti-inflammatory peptide amphiphiles (AIF-Pas). When compared with control Pas, the treated scaffold showed regenerative capacity while modulating the innate inflammatory response, resulting in superior bladder function.

This work is published in the journal Biomaterials.

“Our findings are very relevant not just for bladder regeneration but for other types of tissue regeneration where foreign materials are utilized for structural support. I also envision the potential utility of these nanomolecules for the treatment of a wide range of dysfunctional inflammatory based conditions,” said Sharma.

Sharma is also director of Pediatric Urological Regenerative Medicine at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; director of Surgical Research at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute; assistant professor of biomedical engineering at McCormick School of Engineering; and a member of the Developmental Biology Program of the research institute.

The research team includes members of the Departments of Urology and Medicine at Feinberg; Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine (IBNAM) and the Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University and the Department of Urology at Loyola University Health System.

This work was performed in collaboration with the Stupp Laboratory at IBNAM.

Immunology Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Coaxing Hair Growth in Aging Hair Follicle Stem Cells

Jun 9, 2023

New Therapeutic Target for Osteoarthritis Identified 

Jun 9, 2023

Largest Cell Map of Human Lung Reveals Insights Into Disease

Jun 8, 2023

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Coaxing Hair Growth in Aging Hair Follicle Stem Cells

Jun 9, 2023

New Therapeutic Target for Osteoarthritis Identified 

Jun 9, 2023

Largest Cell Map of Human Lung Reveals Insights Into Disease

Jun 8, 2023

McNally Honored with Walder Award

Jun 8, 2023

Biological Aging Increases Risk of Depression, Anxiety in Adults 

Jun 7, 2023
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
ANB05555
ANB08990
ANB09022
ANB09063
ANB09008
ANB08781
ANB08971
ANB09000
ANB08992
ANB09015
ANB09058
ANB09048

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2023 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.