Modification of biomaterials with ephrins and Eph ligands for angiogenic applications

摘要

Recent developments in Eph/ephrin research suggest a large potential for therapeutic applications. Interplay between Eph-ephrin plays major roles in neuronal guidance, vasculature development, and angiogenesis. Specifically, we chose to work with ephrin-A1 and EphB4 to promote angiogenesis in the tissue engineered construct as they have been found to induce strong angiogenic responses in endothelial cells. In this report, we describe novel applications of ephrin-Al and EphB4 to cardiovascular engineering using polyethylene glycol (PEG) hydrogels as a bioinert base material.