Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery Significantly Increases Intra-Arterial Delivery of Embolic Microspheres to Liver Tumors in a Porcine Model.

This study aimed to test the hypothesis that pressure-enabled drug delivery (PEDD) with a pressure-modulating microcatheter device (TriNav; TriSalus Life Sciences, Westminster, Colorado) would increase delivery of microspheres via hepatic arterial infusion to liver tumors in an Oncopig model (Sus Clinicals, Chicago, Illinois) when compared with a conventional end-hole microcatheter. Trisacryl gelatin microspheres (100-300 μm in size) were fluorescently labeled and infused into porcine liver tumors using conventional technique (n = 8) or by PEDD (n = 8). Liver tissue was harvested, and images were analyzed with a custom deep learning algorithm (Visiopharm, Hørsholm, Denmark) to quantitate signal intensity.

Intra-arterial Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery Significantly Increases Penetration of Glass Microspheres in a Porcine Liver Tumor Model.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery (PEDD) would improve the delivery of surrogate therapeutic glass microspheres (GMs) via hepatic artery infusion to liver tumors when compared with a conventional endhole microcatheter.

Materials And Methods: The study was conducted in transgenic pigs (Oncopigs) with induced liver tumors. Tumors were infused intra-arterially with fluorescently labeled GM.

Pressure-Enabled Drug Delivery (PEDD) of a class C TLR9 agonist in combination with checkpoint inhibitor therapy in a murine pancreatic cancer model.

Background: Systemic immunotherapy has had limited clinical benefit in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. This is thought to be due to its desmoplastic immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment in addition to high intratumoral pressures that limit drug delivery. Recent preclinical cancer models and early-phase clinical trials have demonstrated the potential of toll-like receptor 9 agonists, including the synthetic CpG oligonucleotide SD-101, to stimulate a wide range of immune cells and eliminate suppressive myeloid cells.

Pressure-enabled delivery of gemcitabine in an orthotopic pancreatic cancer mouse model.

Background: We describe the use of pancreatic retrograde venous infusion in an orthotopic murine model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and hypothesize that pancreatic retrograde venous infusion delivery of gemcitabine will increase concentrations of gemcitabine in the tumor and the subsequent tumor response to treatment.

Methods: Murine pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (KPC4580P) was transplanted onto the pancreatic tail of C57BL/6J mice. Groups (n = 15) of mice were assigned to sham laparotomy and 100 mg/kg intraperitoneal infusion of gemcitabine (systemic gemcitabine), pancreatic venous isolation with pancreatic retrograde venous infusion of 100 mg/kg gemcitabine, or pancreatic retrograde venous infusion with saline infusion.

Mouse and human islets survive and function after coating by biosilicification.

Inorganic materials have properties that can be advantageous in bioencapsulation for cell transplantation. Our aim was to engineer a hybrid inorganic/soft tissue construct by inducing pancreatic islets to grow an inorganic shell. We created pancreatic islets surrounded by porous silica, which has potential application in the immunoprotection of islets in transplantation therapies for type 1 diabetes.

Fabrication and characterization of tunable polysaccharide hydrogel blends for neural repair.

Hydrogels are an important class of biomaterials that have the potential to be used as three-dimensional tissue engineering scaffolds for regenerative medicine. This is especially true in the central nervous system, where neurons do not have the ability to regenerate due to the prohibitory local environment following injury. Hydrogels can fill an injury site, replacing the growth-prohibiting environment with a more growth-permissive one.

Magnetic insertion system for flexible electrode implantation.

Chronic recording electrodes are a vital tool for brain research and neural prostheses. Despite decades of advances in recording technology, probe structures and implantation methods have changed little over time. Then as now, compressive insertion methods require probes to be constructed from hard, stiff materials, such as silicon, and contain a large diameter shank to penetrate the brain, particularly for deeper structures.

A rapid, quantitative method for assessing axonal extension on biomaterial platforms.

Measuring outgrowth of neuronal explants is critical in evaluating the ability of a biomaterial to act as a permissive substrate for neuronal adhesion and growth. Previous methods lack the ability to quantify robust outgrowth, or lack the capacity to quantify growth on opaque substrates because they exploit the transparent nature of culture dishes to segregate neuronal processes from an image background based on color intensity. In this study, we sought to investigate the ability of opaque silica sol-gel materials to facilitate axonal outgrowth; therefore, a method was developed for quantifying outgrowth of neurites from dorsal root ganglion explants on these unique surfaces.

Regulation of lymphatic capillary regeneration by interstitial flow in skin.

Decreased interstitial flow (IF) in secondary lymphedema is coincident with poor physiological lymphatic regeneration. However, both the existence and direction of causality between IF and lymphangiogenesis remain unclear. This is primarily because the role of IF and its importance relative to the action of the prolymphangiogenic growth factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-C (which signals primarily through its receptor VEGFR-3) are poorly understood.