Release of Interleukin-10 from Agarose/Methylcellulose Blended Hydrogel for Spinal Cord Injury Applications

Student Researchers: Becky Klank – Undergraduate Student, Biomedical Engineering
Eric Minner – Graduate Student, Biomedical Engineering

Collaborator: Dr. Phillip Popovich, Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology & Medical Genetics, Ohio State University

Using our agarose, methylcellulose hydrogel blend, we have developed techniques to load into the hydrogel the cytokine interleukin-10. Interleukin-10 mitigates the inflammatory response following spinal cord injury. Our goal in this project is to determine the release rate of interleukin-10 from the hydrogel and determine if the released interleukin-10 attenuates the production of the negative inflammatory signaling molecules following spinal cord injury.