Growth Factors Engineered for Super-Affinity to the Extracellular Matrix Enhance Tissue Healing

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1247663
• Publication Date: 2014-02-20T19:21:18Z
• Authors: Mikaël M. Martino; Priscilla S. Briquez; Esra Güç; Federico Tortelli; Witold W. Kilarski; Stephanie Metzger; Jeffrey J. Rice; Gisela A. Kuhn; Ralph Müller; Melody A. Swartz; Jeffrey A. Hubbell
• Keywords: Tissue Repair

Toward Successful Tissue Repair The therapeutic use of growth factors in tissue regeneration has suffered from safety and efficacy issues. Reasoning that the unmet potential may be because nonphysiological delivery, Martino et al. (p. 885 ) engineered to bind strongly extracellular matrix proteins. These variants were able induce superior repair, compared wild-type Furthermore, unwanted side effects decreased: For example, angiogenic factor VEGF showed reduced vascular permeability, a concern limited VEGF.