Patent ID: 7825083

Claim:
An in situ method of treating a wound in synovial joint tissue comprising the steps of: (a) applying to the tissue in the presence of synovial fluid: (i) a crosslinkable protein copolymer comprising recombinant elastin and fibroin copolymer chains; and (ii) a crosslinker; (b) allowing the recombinant elastin and fibroin copolymer chains to crosslink in situ, thereby forming an adherent barrier coating on the synovial tissue surface, wherein the coating excludes at least a portion of the synovial fluid from the tissue, and forms an effective barrier on the synovial joint tissue surface against synovial fluid wherein said coating exclusion results in formation of the barrier coating, and (c) seeding the barrier coating with autologous cells which promote the wound healing and permit said cells to infiltrate the wound beneath the barrier coating to improve regenerative healing.