Journal Article 2018

Prolonged survival of transplanted stem cells after ischaemic injury via the slow release of pro-survival peptides from a collagen matrix.

Lee, Andrew S , Inayathullah, Mohammed , Lijkwan, Maarten A , Zhao, Xin , Sun, Wenchao , Park, Sujin , Hong, Wan Xing , Parekh, Mansi B , Malkovskiy, Andrey V , Lau, Edward , Qin, Xulei , Pothineni, Venkata Raveendra , Sanchez-Freire, Veronica , Zhang, Wendy Y , Kooreman, Nigel G , Ebert, Antje D , Chan, Charles K F , Nguyen, Patricia K , Rajadas, Jayakumar , Wu, Joseph C

Publication Details
  • Journal: Nat Biomed Eng
  • Volume: 2 (2 )
  • Pages: 104-113
  • Published: Feb 2018
  • Type: Journal Article
Abstract

Stem-cell-based therapies hold considerable promise for regenerative
medicine. However, acute donor-cell death within several weeks after cell delivery remains a critical hurdle for clinical translation. Co- transplantation of stem cells with pro-survival factors can improve cell engraftment, but this strategy has been hampered by the typically short half-lives of the factors and by the use of Matrigel and other scaffolds that are not chemically defined. Here, we report a collagen-dendrimer biomaterial crosslinked with pro-survival peptide analogues that adheres to the extracellular matrix and slowly releases the peptides, significantly prolonging stem cell survival in mouse models of ischaemic injury. The biomaterial can serve as a generic delivery system to improve functional outcomes in cell-replacement therapy.

Added: January 15, 2026 | Updated: January 15, 2026