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

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.