PLGA-PEG-PLGA used for tendon repair surgery

PolySciTech (www.polyscitech.com) provides a wide array of PLGA-PEG-PLGA thermogels. Recently, this type of polymer was used to prevent adhesion post tendon repair surgery. Read more: Yuan, Baoming, Chaoliang He, Xiaoming Dong, Jingcheng Wang, Zhongli Gao, Qian Wang, Huayu Tian, and Xuesi Chen. "5-Fluorouracil loaded thermosensitive PLGA-PEG-PLGA hydrogels for preventing postoperative tendon adhesion." RSC Advances (2015). http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ra/c5ra01307k

“Abstract: Prevention of adhesion after tendon repair surgery is of importance during tendon healing; however, current clinical outcomes are still not fully satisfactory. In this study, thermosensitive PLGA-PEG-PLGA hydrogels were used as injectable physical barriers for prevention of tissue adhesion during tendon healing, in which 5-fluorouracil (5-Fu) was loaded for inhibiting the proliferation of fibroblast. The 5-Fu-loaded hydrogels showed a sol-gel-precipitation phase transition with increasing temperature, and the hydrogels displayed the maximum storage moduli at around physiological temperature. The sustained release of 5-Fu from the hydrogels lasted over 7 days. The PLGA-PEG-PLGA hydrogels degraded within 4 weeks after subcutaneous injection into rats, and showed acceptable biocompatibility in vivo. The anti-adhesion efficacy of the hydrogels with or without 5-Fu during the Achilles tendon healing of rats was evaluated by macroscopic evaluation and histological analysis. It was found that the group treated with 5-Fu-loaded hydrogels showed a significant inhibition of adhesion formation when compared to the untreated group or the group treated with the hydrogels only. Therefore, the 5-Fu-loaded injectable hydrogels hold potential as efficient physical barriers for preventing adhesion formation during Achilles tendon healing.”