STTR Phase I: Allogeneic Stem Cell Delivery for Efficacy-Enhanced Equine Biotherapeutics

这项小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力涉及技术开发，以扩大基于细胞的组织再生疗法的治疗窗口。这项技术将显著提高对细胞疗法的科学理解，并使损伤愈合比目前的技术更快，侵入性更小。竞技赛马市场对这项技术有很大的需求。98%的参赛马遭受软组织损伤，超过80%的马出现悬韧带缺损。悬吊韧带的损伤可能需要数年才能愈合，这是导致主人错过比赛的主要原因。这项拟议的技术为兽医提供了一种更快地治愈悬吊韧带损伤的方法，从而减少了错过的表演，减少了经济损失，最重要的是，提高了动物的生活质量。这个小型企业技术转移（STTR）一期项目将解决赛马悬韧带损伤愈合缓慢的问题。98%的兽医使用干细胞注射来帮助这些损伤的恢复，但由于注射的细胞活力差，细胞在损伤部位停留时间短，这种策略的效果有限。这个问题是通过开发一种技术来解决的，这种技术可以通过惰性的、可注射的水凝胶微粒来保存和定位损伤部位的间充质干细胞（MSCs）。本课题的研究目标是双重的；1. 2.定量评估水凝胶微囊化细胞的细胞活力和基质细胞样行为指标，并将其与基线未囊化细胞指标进行比较；提供明确的证据，证明包封过程定位细胞并保持其活力，无毒且无免疫原性，并在小型动物模型中显示出与其预期商业用途相似的卓越组织再生标记。本研究有望定量阐明水凝胶微环境中细胞活力和包封后的生物分子反应，建立水凝胶包封MSCs的初步安全性和有效性结果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact /commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project involves the development of technology to extend the therapeutic window of cell-based tissue regeneration therapies. This technology will significantly enhance the scientific understanding of cellular therapies, and enable the healing of injuries more rapidly and less invasively than current techniques. A significant need for this technology exists in the competition horse market. 98% of competitive horses suffer from soft tissue injuries and more than 80% develop suspensory ligament defects. Injuries to suspensory ligaments can take years to heal and are the leading cause of missed performances owners. The proposed technology provides veterinarians a means of healing suspensory ligament injuries significantly faster, resulting in fewer missed performances, reduced financial losses, and most importantly, improved quality of life for the animal. This Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project will address the problem of slow healing suspensory ligament injuries for racehorses. 98% of vets use stem cell injections to aid in recovery of these injuries, but this strategy has limited efficacy due to poor viability of injected cells and short cell retention times at the site of injury. This problem is addressed by developing technology to preserve and localize mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) at an injury site through delivery in inert, injectable hydrogel microparticles. The research objectives of this proposal are twofold; 1. Quantitively assessing metrics of cell viability and stromal cell-like behavior of hydrogel microencapsulated cells and compare them to baseline unencapsulated cell metrics, and 2. Provide explicit evidence that the encapsulation process localizes cells and preserves their viability, is nontoxic and non-immunogenic, and demonstrates markers of superior tissue regeneration in a small animal model similar to that of its intended commercial use. This study is expected to enable the quantitative elucidation of cell viability and biomolecular response to encapsulation in hydrogel microenvironments and establish preliminary safety and efficacy results of hydrogel-encapsulated MSCs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.