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Cell-based cytokine patch for localized immunomodulation and accelerated healing in rodent and porcine wounds

Nature Biomedical Engineering (2026) Cite this article

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Abstract

Wounds can become chronic if the biological processes that coordinate tissue repair, including immune cell activity and matrix remodelling, become dysregulated. Current treatments mainly focus on a wound’s physical properties, such as moisture and pressure, and do not restore the disrupted molecular pathways. Here we show a removable patch containing engineered human cells that continuously release native cytokines and that can accelerate healing in rodent and porcine full-thickness wounds. The patch is a polydimethylsiloxane structure that houses alginate-encapsulated human retinal epithelial cells engineered to secrete individual cytokines relevant to tissue repair. Once placed on the wound bed, the cells remain viable and locally release the cytokines over several days. Delivery of interleukin 10, interleukin 12 and transforming growth factor-beta accelerates wound healing in mice and pigs, with accompanying changes in gene expression linked to tissue repair, including pathways involved in skin development and collagen organization. This work suggests that localized, cell-based cytokine delivery may enable future wound treatments that directly modulate the cellular programs governing tissue repair.

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Fig. 1: A patch for localized delivery of cytokines to a wound bed.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 2: IL10, IL12 and TGF-β delivered from the patch accelerates wound healing in a murine wound model.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 3: IL10, IL12 and TGF-β delivered from the patch affects immune cell composition in the wound bed and upregulates transcripts important for wound healing.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 4: IL10, IL12 and TGF-β delivered from the patch upregulates pathways associated with wound healing.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.
Fig. 5: IL10, IL12 and TGF-β delivered from the patch accelerates wound healing in a porcine wound model.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

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Data availability

Sequencing data for the murine scRNA-seq, murine bulk RNA-seq and pig bulk RNA-seq are available from the Sequence Read Archive with accession number PRJNA1436584. Any additional information is available from the corresponding author with reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (D20AC00002) for O.V., T.C.-K., S.F.B. and B.N.B. We thank R. Crum and M. Lebaudy for their assistance with the canine surgery.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Christian C. Schreib, Elizabeth L. Kelley, Gillian Audia, Samantha Fleury, Dilrasbonu Vohidova, Grace M. Donnell & Omid Veiseh

  2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Raghav Garg & Tzahi Cohen-Karni

  3. McGowan Institute of Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Scott Johnson & Stephen F. Badylak

  4. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Marissa N. Behun, Mangesh Kulkarni & Bryan N. Brown

  5. Department of Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Stephen F. Badylak

  6. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Tzahi Cohen-Karni

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  1. Christian C. Schreib
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Contributions

C.C.S., E.L.K. and O.V. designed the studies. C.C.S., E.L.K, G.A., S.J., S.F., M.N.B., D.V., M.K. and G.M.D. conducted the experiments. R.G. designed the device form. C.C.S. and E.L.K. analysed data, carried out statistical analyses and prepared displays communicating datasets. O.V., T.C.-K., S.F.B. and B.N.B. provided advice and technical support throughout. O.V. supervised the study. C.C.S. wrote the paper with assistance from E.L.K, S.J., B.N.B., S.F.B. and O.V. All authors discussed the results and the preparation of the paper.

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Correspondence to Omid Veiseh.

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Competing interests

C.C.S., T.C.K. and O.V. declare interests via patents filed by Rice University and Carnegie Mellon University on the wound patch described in this paper. C.C.S., T.C.K. and O.V. hold equity in and are cofounders of Curada Bio. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Schreib, C.C., Kelley, E.L., Audia, G. et al. Cell-based cytokine patch for localized immunomodulation and accelerated healing in rodent and porcine wounds. Nat. Biomed. Eng (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-026-01687-7

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