Inventors:
Anthony Calabro - Cleveland Heights OH, US
Lee Akst - Boston MA, US
Daniel Alam - Shaker Heights OH, US
James Chan - Cleveland Heights OH, US
Aniq B. Darr - Parma Heights OH, US
Kiyotaka Fukamachi - Mayfield Heights OH, US
Richard A. Gross - Plainview NY, US
David Haynes - Waco TX, US
Keiji Kamohara - Mayfield Heights OH, US
Daniel P. Knott - Shaker Heights OH, US
Hilel Lewis - Beachwood OH, US
Alex Melamud - Durham NC, US
Anthony Miniaci - Chagrin Falls OH, US
Marshall Strome - Gates Mills OH, US
Assignee:
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation - Cleveland OH
International Classification:
C08G 63/91, C08G 63/48
US Classification:
525 541, 525 542, 5253261, 525420, 527600
Abstract:
A dihydroxyphenyl cross-linked macromolecular network is provided that is useful in artificial tissue and tissue engineering applications, particularly to provide a synthetic macromolecular network for a wide variety of tissue types. In particular, artificial or synthetic cartilage, vocal cord material, vitreous material, soft tissue material and mitral valve material are described. In an embodiment, the network is composed of tyramine-substituted and cross-linked hyaluronan molecules, wherein cross-linking is achieved via peroxidase-mediated dityramine-linkages that can be performed in vivo. The dityramine bonds provide a stable, coherent hyaluronan-based hydrogel with desired physical properties.