Regenerative Medicine

Growth Factors
Growth Factor Therapy is the application of growth factors, either systemically or locally, to stimulate existing cells to divide and replace damaged areas of a tissue. Growth factors have been applied with success, experimentally and therapeutically, to the regeneration of bone marrow, blood cells, bone, skin, cartilage, neurons, and blood vessels. One contemporary strategy of potential interest to the University of Nebraska is attaching specific growth factors to nanoparticles, and then injecting them into regions of tissue damage. In addition to expertise in nanosciences, UNMC has a strong set of researchers with expertise in various aspects of growth factor effects and growth factor receptors, especially applied to regeneration of bone marrow.