Injectable “Homing‐Like” Bioactive Short‐Fibers for Endometrial Repair and Efficient Live Births
Yumeng Cao, Jia Qi, Juan Wang, Liang Chen, Yuan Wang, Yijing Long, Boyu Li, Junliang Lai, Yejie Yao, Yiwen Meng, Xiaohua Yu, Xiao‐Dong Chen, Lai Guan Ng, Xinyu Li, Yao Lu, Xiaoyue Cheng, Wenguo Cui, Yun Sun- General Physics and Astronomy
- General Engineering
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous)
- General Materials Science
- General Chemical Engineering
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
Abstract
The prevalence of infertility caused by endometrial defects is steadily increasing, posing a significant challenge to women's reproductive health. In this study, injectable “homing‐like” bioactive decellularized extracellular matrix short‐fibers (DEFs) of porcine skin origin are innovatively designed for endometrial and fertility restoration. The DEFs can effectively bind to endometrial cells through noncovalent dipole interactions and release bioactive growth factors in situ. In vitro, the DEFs effectively attracted endometrial cells through the “homing‐like” effect, enabling cell adhesion, spreading, and proliferation on their surface. Furthermore, the DEFs effectively facilitated the proliferation and angiogenesis of human primary endometrial stromal cells (HESCs) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), and inhibited fibrosis of pretreated HESCs. In vivo, the DEFs significantly accelerated endometrial restoration, angiogenesis, and receptivity. Notably, the deposition of endometrial collagen decreased from 41.19 ± 2.16% to 14.15 ± 1.70% with DEFs treatment. Most importantly, in endometrium‐injured rats, the use of DEFs increased the live birth rate from 30% to an impressive 90%, and the number and development of live births close to normal rats. The injectable “homing‐like” bioactive DEFs system can achieve efficient live births and intrauterine injection of DEFs provides a new promising clinical strategy for endometrial factor infertility.