Organ injury and tissue repair is a highly complex process of events with the purpose of repairing damage and restoring tissue function and architecture. The process of tissue repair in an organism follows broadly the same path in different organ systems. It consists of two components, repair or regeneration.
Repair after injury occurs when a variety of cells migrate rapidly into the wound area and form granulation tissue. Fibrosis, better known as scar formation is the end result of repair.
In the case of regeneration, damaged cells are replaced by the same cell type to maintain organ function and structure. The source of the replacing cells can be endogenous (from the organ itself) or exogenous (from outside sources).
Regeneration occurs in our body on a daily basis in some organ systems. The hematopoietic system continues to produce new red and white blood cells during our lifespan and the intestinal epithelium in our gut is renewed every 7 days. However, the majority of tissues are not able to regenerate once injured. In the instance of severe disease injury or trauma the body is able to muster a robust response by mobilizing a small fraction of stem cells to the site of injury. Unfortunately, this mobilization is limited in numbers and duration and only occurs during the initial injury and fades quickly.
MRG-001 takes advantage of this biologically existing response mechanism. MRG-001 is able to synergistically mobilize several unique populations of hematopoietic, mesenchymal and endothelial stem cells to the peripheral circulation. The liberated stem cells are attracted by chemokines (SDF-1) secreted by injured tissues. We hypothesize that stem cells are able to exert their effect by replacing injured cells through differentiation, promotion of angiogenesis and reduction of inflammation.
The bone marrow is a niche for a multitude of different immune cells. Besides mobilizing stem cells, MRG-001 is able to mobilize specific types of immunomodulatory cells to the injury site, such as regulatory T-cells and M2 type macrophages. Immune cells are known to play a key role in modulation repair and regeneration. Modulation of the inflammation during extensive injury prevents excessive fibrosis formation and improve wound healing.
Taken together, MRG-001 harnesses the body’s own reparative and regenerative response by mobilizing stem cells and immunomodulatory cells through subcutaneous injections.