Anyone who has suffered an injury can probably remember the after-effects, including pain, swelling¹（肿胀） or redness. These are signs that the body is fighting back against the injury. When tissue in the body is damaged, biological programs are activated² to aid in tissue regeneration. An inflammatory response acts as a protective mechanism³ to enable repair and regeneration, helping⁴ the body to heal after injuries such as wounds and burns. However, the same mechanism may interfere⁵ with healing in situations in which foreign material is introduced, for example when synthetics⁶ are grafted⁷ to skin for dermal⁸（皮肤的） repair. In such cases, the inflammation may lead to tissue fibrosis（纤维化）, which creates an obstacle to proper physiological⁹ function. The research group of Arun Sharma, PhD has been working on innovative¹⁰ approaches to tissue regeneration in order to improve the lives of patients with urinary bladder dysfunction. Among their breakthroughs was a medical model for regenerating¹¹ bladders using stem cells harvested from a donor's own bone marrow¹², reported in the Proceedings¹³ 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, the Sharma 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 modulating¹⁴ the innate¹⁵ inflammatory response, resulting in superior bladder function.

 

This work is published in the journal Biomaterials. Says Sharma, "Our findings are very relevant not just for bladder regeneration but for other types of tissue regeneration where foreign materials are utilized¹⁶ for structural¹⁷ support. I also envision the potential utility of these nanomolecules for the treatment of a wide range of dysfunctional（机能失调的） inflammatory based conditions."

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