Enhanced infiltration of myoblasts into collagen scaffolds loaded with engineered basic fibroblast growth factor.

Tongue reconstruction after cancer resection often involves the use of free skin flaps. However, this strategy has limitations. To overcome these issues, tissue engineering approaches using basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) have been investigated to promote tongue muscle regeneration. In this study, a chimeric protein consisting of bFGF and a collagen-binding peptide (CBP-bFGF) was evaluated for its ability to promote myoblast infiltration into collagen-based scaffolds. Results showed that CBP-bFGF promoted the migration of C2C12 myoblasts and their infiltration into collagen sponges. Based on these observations, we propose that the binding of CBP-bFGF with a collagen sponge provides one of the options for accelerating tongue muscle regeneration.