Growth Factor Delivery Matrices for Cardiovascular Regeneration

Growth factors (GFs) are critical biomolecules associated with the maintenance of homeostasis within cardiovascular tissues. They act in a complex time-, concentration-, and microenvironment-determined manner, often in conjunction with each other, to control multiple cellular functions and repair processes at the tissue level. However, exogenous GFs may not be sensed by the target tissue in a time-frame suitable for tissue regeneration, due to their rapid degradation that shortens their half-lives, thereby entailing the need for multiple infusions and/or high dosage. Moreover, excessive GF concentrations and systemic GF delivery can lead to undesirable system-wide pathological responses, highlighting the critical need for their localized delivery to the target tissue site and precise control over GF dosing, activation, and spatiotemporal bioavailability taking into account the specific cardiovascular (CV) tissue microenvironment.