Controlled delivery of sonic hedgehog morphogen and its potential for cardiac repair.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 23690982.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0063075 and PMC identifier 3653884.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The morphogen Sonic hedgehog (Shh) holds great promise for repair or regeneration of tissues suffering ischemic injury, however clinical translation is limited by its short half-life in the body. Here, we describe a coacervate delivery system which incorporates Shh, protects it from degradation, and sustains its release for at least 3 weeks. Shh released from the coacervate stimulates cardiac fibroblasts to upregulate the expression of multiple trophic factors including VEGF, SDF-1α, IGF-1, and Shh itself, for at least 48 hours. Shh coacervate also demonstrates cytoprotective effects for cardiomyocytes in a hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress environment. In each of these studies the bioactivity of the Shh coacervate is enhanced compared to free Shh. These results warrant further investigation of the in vivo efficacy of Shh coacervate for cardiac repair.
Medical subject headings
- Drug Carriers
- Heart
- Hedgehog Proteins
- Myocytes, Cardiac