Tag Archive for: ecm

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A Step Towards Better Veterinary Care: 3 Trends to Watch in 2023

https://uptickmarketing.com/what-is-geotargeting-why-is-it-important/Veterinary medicine is constantly changing and evolving. We’re thankful for the innovation, but as new technologies and treatments are developed, it impacts how we care for animal patients. Keeping up with the ever-expanding veterinary world can be overwhelming. To make keeping up with the best veterinary care available easier, we’d like to share a short list of three trends to watch in 2023.

Technology

Specifically AI technology. AI is a big trend impacting veterinary medicine as we witness its increased use first-hand. Artificial intelligence may not yet be at a level to assist with surgeries, but it can expedite diagnoses and relegate tedious tasks. Veterinarians embracing AI bots can help free up their veterinary technicians, spending long hours inputting health records, to answer questions and focus on better patient care. AI technology is also helpful for scheduling appointments and automated reminders via text messages, email, and phone calls. Beyond administrative help, more and more veterinary offices are embracing AI to help interpret pet data through EKGs, X-Rays, MRIs, and more.

According to a medical technology survey by Statista, AI in veterinary health care was fully functional by 2021. Hence, the usage of AI in veterinary medicine is growing across a range of applications like imaging, disease predictions, cancer treatments, and radiology. AI Technology empowers veterinarians, pet parents, and the medical community to provide the best possible care to patients.

Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology involves redesigning or constructing biological entities to carry out desirable biotechnological processes. For example, Vetrix BioSIS is a bioresorbable material that uses an extracellular matrix (ECM) derived from porcine small intestine submucosa (SIS). It replaces and repairs flesh at the wound site by working with the body’s natural healing process.

The ECM works as a biological scaffold for cells to migrate to and regenerate. It’s the perfect environment for cells to reproduce since it’s also made up of cell tissue. It also provides excellent structural support to native cells to form organized tissue. As the cells lay down their collagen, robust and permanent tissue repair occurs. Because ECM is a biomaterial, there’s no foreign material left behind in the patient’s body as natural self-renewal occurs. This also means there’s no calcification, tissue erosion, or encapsulation that synthetic materials can cause.

More opportunities are regularly arising to use synthetic biology in veterinary medicine for wound management, gastrointestinal soft tissue repair, thoracic wall repair, hernia repair, degloving injuries, mass removals, and more.

Cell and Gene Therapies

Cell and gene therapies are used in various approaches to treat disease at the cellular and genetic levels. Most approved cell therapies in the U.S. focus on blood cancers. However, one of the next goals in cell therapy is to improve efficiency by reprogramming cells in vivo — inside their bodies. The medical community is expecting big things in 2023. Meanwhile, the field of gene therapy faces a pivotal year in 2023 that will likely bring new treatments (and challenges). Medical professionals are excited about the progress being made. Still, many are keeping an eye on pricing and its impact on vets and their patients. A lot is happening in the field of cell and gene therapies and we believe it’s worth keeping an eye on.

Vetrix veterinary regenerative medicine solutions enable veterinarians around the world to provide exceptional patient care all year, every year. Learn more about affordable Vetrix technologies.

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Extracellular Matrix: An Effective Scaffold for Tissue Reconstruction

The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex system of proteins bound together by tissue-specific architectures that helps them form into cells and grow. There is still much to be discovered about its intricacies and contributions to cellular makeup as a whole. But what researchers have found has proven promising and exciting in its contributions to tissue reconstruction. Keep reading to find out how this breakthrough in bioengineering could open the door to new healing possibilities for your patients.

What Is the ECM?

The ECM is an intricately dynamic fundamental ecosystem that relies on and is the deciding factor for cell phenotype and performance. Arranged in a 3D formation, the inner parts are comprised of collagens, glycoproteins, proteoglycans, mucins, elastic fibers, and growth factors. Because of this, it is the perfect biomaterial for tissue reconstruction.

It has the potential to be utilized as a self-reliant mold for constructive remodeling in addition to the more usual use as a simplistic surgical surface to bring together and solidify tissues. In addition to being a substrate for cell communication, the ECM also provides the foundational mapping for tissue and organs. Because it is highly dynamic, the ECM not only delivers communication to cells but is also able to receive cellular information that contributes to its system and substance.

Utilizing ECM for Tissue Reconstruction

Because of its ability to give and receive information from cells, known as “dynamic reciprocity,” the ECM is constantly changing as it breaks down and is reformed by cells. As this is happening, it is aiding in tissue reconstruction. The occurrence of this breaking down and building back up of the ECM is vital to the homeostasis of all tissues and organs.

An important factor to remember here is that as the ECM is separated from its source tissue and used as a conduit for tissue reconstruction, the formation of new tissue must match that which the ECM originally came from so as not to cause an adverse immune response.

Due to the ECM’s dual ability to be reconstructed and control cellular response, it is uniquely positioned to be used in tissue engineering compared to other biomaterials.

What It Means for Your Patients

There are at least 30 commercially available ECM-based scaffold materials available for clinical use at this time. Currently, viable applications in living hosts include treatment for esophageal diseases, volumetric muscle loss, and temporomandibular joint meniscectomy (TMJD).

For each of these applications, host cells latch onto the scaffold and propagate, resulting in a material transformation that is conducive to the growth of functional, site-appropriate host tissue. Instead of the natural mammalian reaction to generate scar tissue and diminish mobility, the ECM makes a return to life before injury possible.
Contact us today for more information on this topic, and head over to our blog for more topics on industry-leading science and medicine for veterinarians and their patients.

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