Intracerebral Delivery of Cytokine Immunotherapy with Hydrogel Accelerates Recovery Post-ICH in Rats

Introduction: The Early Minimally Invasive Removal of Intracerebral Hemorrhage (ICH) trial indicated, for the first time, removal of lobar ICH improves functional outcomes and survival, relative to standard-of-care. ICH removal surgery leave a ~30-80 mL void in the cerebrum, which we identified as a unique opportunity for local administration of injectable dosage forms with potentially disease-modifying therapeutics. We hypothesized that local delivery of Th2 cytokines would reprogram the neuroinflammatory sequelae of ICH toward repair-associated signaling and immune phenotypes to promote ICH recovery.