Guided Growth

When you cut yourself, your body rushes to grow new skin over the wound. And a similar thing happens when internal injuries occur: an influx of new cells develop, with the guidance of a microscopic scaffolding system called the extracellular matrix, which fills the space between cells. However, this matrix can’t help when the injury is in the brain, like a stroke. Researchers add substances to act as artificial replacements for the matrix, but cells often have trouble keeping hold of these, and new structures tend to be leaky and flimsy. But a new injectable gel can help support more stable blood vessels, such as those pictured forming around a stroke site 10 days after treatment. It’s equipped with a substance that binds to integrin – the molecule that generally joins cells to the extracellular matrix. With this helping hand to hold, brain repair following stroke may be within our reach.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from the Segura Lab, UCLA
• Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Nature Materials, August 2017