Renovo Limited

Mark W J Ferguson

Sharon O'Kane

Sally Freeman

Georg Brunner

Sarah G Jones

Gillian S Ashcroft

G Fachklinik Hornheide Dep Cancer Res Brunner

The present invention concerns stimulators of Activin and/or Inhibin for use in promoting the healing of wounds and fibrotic disorders with reduced scarring, together with medicaments and methods for promoting the healing of wounds and fibrotic disorders with reduced scarring.

Pharmaceutical composition containing an activin or inhibin stimulator

Compositions for use in the treatment of wounds and fibrosis comprising a therapeutically effective amount of a compound that modulates actin assembly and organization intracellularly and/or extracellularly and a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle; such a compound promotes the rate of wound healing and also prevents or reduces fibrosis. A preferred compound is gelsolin.

Wound healing and treatment of fibrosis

The present invention provides IL-10 or a fragment or a partially modified form thereof for use in promoting the healing of wounds and fibrotic disorders with reduced scarring and methods for same.

Methods of healing wounds and fibrotic disorders using IL-10

The present invention concerns analogues of M6P for use in promoting the healing of wounds or fibrotic disorders with reduced scarring, together with methods for doing same.

Pharmaceutical composition

The present invention relates to a method for quantifying the amount of active transforming growth factor beta (TGF-&#x3b2;) in biological samples. In particular the method comprising incubating cryosections of a tissue with cells which contain a TGF-&#x3b2; responsive expression vector having a structural region encoding an indicator protein and measuring the amount of said indicator protein expressed from the cells.

Method for quantifying TGF-&#x3b2;

The present application relates to the use of compounds that influence the sex hormone system for the treatment of wounds and/or fibrotic disorders. Preferred compounds for use in such treatments are steroid hormones and especially the oestrogens.

Use of sex steroids function modulators to treat wounds and fibrotic disorders

The use of Matrix Metalloproteinase Inhibitors in the prevention or treatment of connective tissue softening and also for the maintenance of sutures in such connective tissues. The connective tissue may be a tendon, ligament or cartilage.

Connective tissue softening

The present invention provides IL-10 or a fragment or a partially modified form thereof, for use in promoting the healing of wounds and fibrotic disorders with reduced scarring and methods for same.

A composition for use in the treatment of wounds to inhibit scar tissue formation during healing is disclosed, comprising an effective activity-inhibiting amount of a growth factor neutralizing agent or agents specific against only fibrotic growth factors together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. The method of preparation of said composition and method of administering the composition to a host suffering from tissue wounding is also disclosed.

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Derbyshire, United Kingdom

Mark W J Ferguson