Stimulation of chemotaxis by chemotactic peptides

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a synthetic material having chemotactic properties towards cells such as fibroblasts and endothelial cells.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a prosthetic device which is readily incorporated into regenerating tissue, such as skin or blood vessel walls.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a chemotactic material having stimulating activity to a greater extent than was previously available.
These and other objects of the invention as will hereinafter become more readily apparent have been accomplished by providing a method of stimulating chemotaxis, which comprises: incorporating a chemotactic peptide of the formula B.
sup.
1 -X-(AGVPGLGVG).
sub.
n -(AGVPGFGVG).
sub.
m -Y-B.
sup.
2 wherein A is a peptide-forming residue of L-alanine; P is a peptide-forming residue of L-proline; G is a peptide-forming residue of glycine; V is a peptide-forming residue of L-valine; F is a peptide-forming residue of L-phenylalanine; L is a peptide-forming residue of L-leucine; B.
sup.
1 is H or a biocompatible N-terminal group; B.
sup.
2 is OH, OB.
sup.
3 where B.
sup.
3 is a non-toxic metal ion, or a biocompatible C-terminal group: X is GVPGFGVG, GVPGLGVG, VPGFGVG, VPGLGVG, PGFGVG, PGLGVG, GFGVG, GLGVG, FGVG, LGVG, GVG, VG, G or a covalent bond; Y is AGVPGFGV, AGVPGLGV, AGVPGFG, AGVPGLG, AGVPGF, AGVPGL, AGVPG, AGVP, AGV, AG, A or a covalent bond; n is an integer from 0 to 50; m is an integer from 0 to 50; with the proviso that when both n and m are 0, X and Y are selected so that the chemotactic peptide has at least 3 amino acid residues in the X and Y positions combined; into a layer of a prosthetic device in an amount sufficient to increase chemotaxis towards said layer.
This invention also comprises chemotactic matrices and prosthetic devices prepared according to the method set forth above.