Bioactivity and composition of a preserved connective tissue matrix derived from human placental tissue

There are a wide variety of extracellular matrices that can be used for regenerative purposes. Placental tissue‐based matrices are quickly becoming an attractive option given the availability of the tissue source and the wide variety of bioactive molecules knows to exist in unprocessed placental tissues. As fresh placental tissues are seldom an option at the point of care, we examined both the composition and bioactivity of a commercially packaged flowable placental connective tissue matrix (FPTM) (BioECM(®), Skye Biologics, Inc.) that was preserved by the proprietary HydraTek(®) process. The FPTM contained significant amounts of collagen and various growth factors such as bFGF, EGF, PDGF, KGF, and PIGF. In addition, it contained high levels of tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMP‐1 and 2) and molecules known to modulate the immune response including TGF‐β and IL‐4. In terms of its bioactivity, the FPTM displayed the ability (1) to suppress INF‐γ secretion in activated T‐cells nearly fourfold over control media, (2) to inhibit methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Staphylococcus saprophyticus proliferation, (3) to increase the migration of adipose‐derived stem cells (ASCs) nearly threefold over control media and (4) to adhere to ASCs in culture. When ASCs were exposed to FPTM in culture, the cells maintained healthy morphology and showed no significant changes in the expression of five genes involved in tissue growth and repair as compared to culture in standard growth media. © 2018 The Authors Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part B: Applied Biomaterials Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 2731–2740, 2018.