{"id":18962,"date":"2023-06-13T10:31:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T14:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/?p=18962"},"modified":"2023-06-13T10:31:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T14:31:15","slug":"toward-a-new-treatment-for-crohns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2023\/06\/toward-a-new-treatment-for-crohns\/","title":{"rendered":"Toward a New Treatment for Crohn\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
\u201cThese results are very exciting for the future of bio-stimulation tissue repair for chronic injuries.\u201d\u2014Hai-Quan Mao<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease\u00a0that affects an estimated 780,000 Americans, with even higher rates reported in Canada and Europe. Among its many complications are perianal fistulas: tunnels that develop between the inside of the anus and the skin around it. Often resistant to treatment, severe fistulas can lead to incontinence, infertility, and decreased quality of life.<\/p>\n

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed an injectable, biodegradable, mechanically fragmented nanofiber-hydrogel composite (mf NHC) loaded with stem cells that could deliver new treatment for fistulas. The composite results in faster and a higher degree of healing, reducing the volume of fistulas sixfold in comparison to the surgical treatment. The team\u2019s results appear in Science Advances<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese results are very exciting for the future of bio-stimulation tissue repair for chronic injuries even beyond PAF,\u201d says Hai-Quan Mao<\/a>, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering<\/a> and one of the project\u2019s core researchers. Mao is also director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The mf NHC comprises a hydrogel of hyaluronic acid infused with electrospun nanofiber fragments, forming a fully integrated substance that breaks down in the human body slowly, according to Zhicheng Yao, a co-first author of this study and a PhD student in the Materials Science and Engineering program who is a mentee of Mao. The nanofibers give the substance enough stiffness so that the gel retains its shape, while still being porous enough to provide a scaffold for regenerative host cells, which migrate into the area and begin to rebuild the affected tissue. In the case of perianal fistulas, it is injected directly into the fissure to promote regeneration.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerianal fistulas in Crohn\u2019s patients are notoriously difficult to treat. Our results could represent a new treatment paradigm to improve the quality of life for patients with Crohn\u2019s disease,\u201d says Florin Selaru<\/a>, associate professor of medicine and oncology in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine\u2019s Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology<\/a> and director of the Meyerhoff Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center<\/a>, and one of the project\u2019s senior authors.<\/p>\n

Though still working to understand the bio-stimulation repair mechanism, the team plans to continue work on the composite, improving it \u201cfrom a biomaterials perspective,\u201d says Mao. \u201cWe are exploring the idea of a foam version as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease\u00a0that affects an estimated 780,000 Americans, with even higher rates reported in Canada and Europe. Among its many complications are perianal fistulas: tunnels that develop between the inside of the anus and the skin around it. Often resistant to treatment, severe fistulas can lead to incontinence, infertility, and decreased…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":18964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact","issue-spring-2023"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nToward a New Treatment for Crohn\u2019s - JHU Engineering Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Johns Hopkins researchers develop an innovative treatment for perianal fistulas in Crohn's disease using stem cell-loaded nanofiber-hydrogel composite.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/magazine-archive\/2023\/06\/toward-a-new-treatment-for-crohns\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Toward a New Treatment for Crohn\u2019s - 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