Cellular Hitchhiking on Microparticles to Alleviate Skin Injury

Regenerative medicine holds great potential for the future treatment of acute burn injury. However, current skin graft technology does not provide any structural support to transplanted cells, and it also causes scar formation. To combat these challenges, the present study focuses on a rapidly developing field of research: engineering microparticles to provide structural support to cells while in suspension. Microparticles have tremendous potential as scaffolding systems to carry multiple exogenous cells because of their high surface area to volume ratio. Microparticles can further be utilized as growth factor delivery systems to promote cell proliferation. In this study, microparticles are synthesized from poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA), a biodegradable copolymer. Fibronectin, a glycoprotein involved in wound healing, is conjugated onto the surface of PLGA microparticles for seeding viable cells. Cells will be grown in suspension on the microparticles. We call it “cellular hitchhiking”. This de novo technique has versatile applications including skin regeneration