Engineered biomaterial immunological niches to monitor anti-VLA4 therapy in chronic progressive EAE

These implants are microporous polycaprolactone scaffolds that form immunological niches that get vascularized and capture both innate and adaptive immune cells. These niches can be explanted, allowing for multiple timepoints to be collected from the same mouse at various timepoints in disease and treatment: healthy (Day -1), presymptomatic and pretreatment (Day 6) and early state disease after treatment (Day 10).

This study investigates immune dynamics with anti-VLA4 therapy from subclinical to early stage chronic progressive EAE at a distal biomaterial-based immunological niche.