Tranilast-delivery surgical sutures to ameliorate wound healing by reducing scar formation through regulation of TGF-beta expression and fibroblast recruitment

Abstract

We describe surgical sutures enabled with the local, sustained delivery of a TGF-beta inhibitory drug, tranilast. To fabricate drug-delivery sutures, we separately prepared a tranilast-loaded strand using poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid), which was then physically braided with a surgical suture already in clinical use. By this method, the drug-delivery sutures maintained the mechanical strength and allowed the modulation of drug release profiles by simply altering the tranilast-loaded strand. The drug-delivery sutures herein released tranilast for up to 14 days. When applied to animal models, scarring was indeed reduced with diminished TGF-beta expression and fibroblast numbers during the entire 21 day testing period. (C) 2018 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.