Use of regenerative agents in hand surgery

Introduction ReGeneraTing Agents (RGTAs) are a family of polymers bioengineered to stabilise heparin-binding growth factors by mimicking HeparanSulphate (HS) thereby protecting them and promoting tissue repair and regeneration. In inflammation, destruction of HS exposes the ExtraCellularMatrix – ECM (structural & cellular proteins within) to the actions of proteases and glycanases which break them down and also act on cytokines and growth factors to prevent adequate repair. In injured tissue, RGTAs would replace destroyed HS by binding to the structural proteins and reconstruct the ECM scaffold. Growth factors will also bind to RGTA and resume position and organization resembling that of non-injured tissue. Hence RGTAs showed they induce a regeneration process by restoring -the proper cellular micro-environment. More recently a RGTA named CACIPLIQ20 was adapted to skin lesions and has shown efficacy in various trials of non-healing leg ulcers.