Regeneration of damaged tissue

Abstract

A method of healing a wound including contacting a wound edge with a tropoelastin or elastin derived peptide in conditions for enabling a sustained contact of the tropoelastin with the wound edge for a time period for enabling re-epithelialization of the wound.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method of treating scar tissue, the method comprising:
 providing an individual having scar tissue;   forming a wound in the scar tissue, the wound including a plurality of epidermal cells located about the wound, thereby forming a wound edge;   contacting the wound edge with a therapeutically effective amount of a sustained release composition comprising tropoelastin,
 wherein the sustained release composition is in contact with the wound edge for a time period to promote re-epithelization of the wound, 
 wherein the re-epithelialization of the wound treats the scar tissue. 
   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the scar tissue is treated by removal of the scar tissue. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the scar tissue is treated by reducing a volume of the scar tissue. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the wound is created by forming a plurality of micro punctures along the scar tissue to create multiple wounds in the scar tissue. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the time period is no more than about 1 to 2 weeks. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the time period is about 1 to 3 weeks. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sustained release composition comprising tropoelastin is a gel. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the gel enables sustained release of the tropoelastin. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the gel is a cross-linked hyaluronic acid gel. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the tropoelastin is in the form of tropoelastin monomers. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein the tropoelastin monomers are not crosslinked. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the sustained release composition comprises about 0.1 mg/mL to about 250 mg/mL of tropoelastin. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the sustained release composition comprises about 25 mg/mL to about 50 mg/mL of tropoelastin. 
     
     
         15 . A method of treating scar tissue, the method comprising:
 providing an individual having scar tissue,   forming a wound in the scar tissue,   contacting the wound with a therapeutically effective amount of a composition comprising tropoelastin and hyaluronic acid for a time period to promote re-epithelization of the wound.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the wound is created surgically. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the wound is created by forming a plurality of micro punctures along the scar tissue to create multiple wounds in the scar tissue. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the tropoelastin is present in the composition in an amount of about 25 mg/mL to about 50 mg/mL. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the tropoelastin is in the form of tropoelastin monomers. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the tropoelastin monomers are not crosslinked. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein hyaluronic acid is crosslinked.