Smart Materials in Medicine最新文献

Peripheral nerve injury (PNI) is a common and complex clinical disease with high morbidity, limited treatment options and poor clinical outcomes. Several million cases of PNI in the world every year have brought a heavy burden to the patients and the social economy. Autologous nerve grafting has long been the “gold standard” in the treatment of PNI repair, but it still has some shortcomings, such as donor area injury, limited graft source and mismatch of nerve thickness after transplantation. In recent years, many artificial nerve guidance conduits (NGCs) have emerged for replacing autologous nerve grafts, and their effectiveness has been proven. Currently, there are already clinical products obtained from the European CE Certification, and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia, etc. The preparation of NGCs requires interdisciplinary studies and has received considerable attention from researchers in recent years. At present, among emerging and mature manufacturing technologies, textile methods to prepare NGCs are relatively simple and have wide material sources, which has become a hotspot in textile research. This paper mainly reviewed the current situation and recent technological achievements of NGCs that were prepared by textile methods. Several other common methods were also briefly summarized. Furthermore, current NGCs products and their clinical applications were reported. Finally, the future development direction of textile-based NGCs is discussed in this review.

With the development of modern medicine, the research methods of occurrence, development and treatment of orthopedic diseases are developing rapidly. The microenvironment provided by traditional orthopedic research methods differ considerably from the human body, resulting in poor or inconsistent conclusions in previous studies. Microfluidic technology has shown its advantages in the field of orthopedic research, especially in providing bionic mechanical stimulation environment. The microfluidic device can simulate the complex internal environment through the fine and complex structure and perfusion control system, and provide a stable, controllable and efficient culture system. Moreover, it can serve as a manufacturing device, which can produce bone grafts or bone like organs for tissue engineering with bionic structure. It can also simultaneously act as a detection device, which can realize high-throughput detection of small samples at low cost. In addition, we can establish in vitro physiological or pathological models on microfluidic systems to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of orthopedic diseases. This paper reviews the medical application of microfluidic devices in orthopedics.

Effective wound care is a major concern as many conventional wound healing methods and materials have failed in facilitating proper healing, instead disrupts the overall healing process, leading to the development of chronic wounds. Advancement in tissue engineering has led to the development of scaffolds; a 3D construct which can be utilized as a template for cell growth and regeneration while preventing infection along with acceleration of the wound healing process. Natural and synthetic polymers are used extensively for scaffold production and hybrid scaffolds are also introduced which constitutes a combination of natural and synthetic polymers. This review highlights the design of scaffolds using different kinds of polymers for skin tissue engineering.

The nervous system is a crucial part of the human body that is damaged by traumatic injury, stroke, and neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies also have shown that neurodegenerative diseases are associated with a subsequently increased risk of COVID-19-related death. Presently used pharmacological and therapeutic strategies are only the symptomatic treatments that involve the disruption of axonal tracts and are unable to repair and regenerate damaged CNS tissue thereby leading to significant unmet clinical needs involved in neural degeneration. The use of stem cell based regenerative medicine approaches is also limited due to heavy cost, ethical concerns and graft rejection. To address all these limitations, the neural tissue engineering philosophy has been developed that focuses on exploring and developing smart biomaterials for neural tissue repair and regeneration. A scaffold based upon natural and synthetic polymers has meant a very potential role to mimic the extracellular matrix of cells and permit the growth of different types of cells thereby improving the biological behavior in vitro and in vivo effects. They treat neurological disorders without the classic drug delivery limitations. Among these biopolymers, the collagen-based hydrogel is successfully applied conduits for clinical trials that ultimately replicate the native physiological environment of the neural tissues and control cell behavior and favor the regeneration of the damaged nerve tissue. The main objective of this review is to investigate the recent approaches and applications of next-generation polymeric biomaterials useful in the management of neurodegenerative diseases. We also discuss the outlook of the polymeric scaffolds that could pave the way for successful clinical practices.

Silk sericin (SS) is a byproduct of the silk production process that consists of 18 ​amino acids and numerous polar groups. SS has a range of unique physical, chemical, and biological properties, such as mechanical strength, antioxidant activity, pH responsiveness, low immunogenicity, biocompatibility, and the ability to promote cell proliferation. These properties make SS useful in various fields, including food and biomedicine. It can also be easily modified into biomaterials through cross-linking, copolymerization, and combination with other polymers. This review summarizes the potential applications of SS-based biomaterials in the food and biomedicine industries, including as food additives, food packaging, in vitro/vivo monitoring, drug delivery systems, and wound healing. In addition, the future development possibilities of SS or SS-based biomaterials are also discussed.

The rapid healing of wounds requires strategies that relieve oxidative stress resulting from overloaded free radicals and which promote angiogenesis, collagen deposition, and re-epithelialization of the wound. Nickel ions have been reported to be correlated with angiogenesis. However, several applications of metal salts or oxides to wounds lead to increased toxicity. The nickel metal-organic framework (Ni MOF) nanorods described herein can slowly release nickel ions, resulting in reduced toxicity and improved wound healing rates. More importantly, the Ni₃(2,3,6,7,10,11-hexaiminotriphenylene)₂ (Ni₃(HITP)₂) nanorods with well-defined structures, superior conductivity and many catalytic sites showed superoxide dismutase (SOD)-like enzyme activity and scavenged various free radicals. In addition, the Ni₃(HITP)₂ nanomaterials contributed to promotion of the migration of fibroblasts, angiogenesis and macrophage polarization from M1 to M2. The aqueous solution of Pluronic F127, a temperature-sensitive, nontoxic and phase-changing hydrogel material, was shown to be an effective choice for injectable and sprayable medical dressings. The Ni₃(HITP)₂ MOF nanomaterials can be effectively encapsulated with the F127 hydrogel to achieve continuous long-term therapeutic effects. The toxicity test results suggested that the Ni₃(HITP)₂ MOF nanomaterials exhibited excellent biosafety and no observable toxicity or side effects in mice. Therefore, the Ni₃(HITP)₂ MOF nanorods hold promising potential in the biomedical field, and this work provides an effective solution to wound therapy.

Sepsis and sepsis-related organ dysfunction have been identified as significant global life-threatening health threats, with a high mortality rate despite ongoing research in the area. Timely diagnosis is essential such that treatment could be initiated as early as possible to ensure the best outcome, since delayed intervention is associated with a higher mortality. Patient stratification and disease monitoring, present significant challenges in sepsis treatment and management strategies, largely due to the heterogenicity of sepsis signs and symptoms. Hence a focus on potential biomarkers to overcome these challenges is needed. Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs), mainly the exosome subtype, have been investigated regarding their potential role in sepsis diagnostics, therapeutics and as drug delivery vehicles. Herein, we present an up-to-date review covering the role of circulating exosomes in the diagnosis and monitoring of the progression of sepsis and in therapeutics and drug delivery for sepsis. To provide context, sepsis pathophysiology and the role of circulating exosomes in sepsis have been highlighted. Future prospects, current challenges and recommendations regarding the role of exosomes in sepsis are also identified.

Numerous studies have conducted in-depth research on the biological and chemical properties of tissue-engineered neural graft (TENG) on peripheral nerve regeneration, while the physical properties of the graft also display a significant impact on the regeneration of the injured nerve. Among them, the elasticity properties of TENG show a significant impact on the adhesion, proliferation, migration and bio-functionality of nerve cells in peripheral nerve regeneration. This review summarizes the latest research progress on elastic biomaterials for peripheral nervous system (PNS), including categories of elastic biomaterials, preparation methods and the effect of elasticity on the growth behavior of nerve cells, etc. In addition, the effect of the elastic substrate on the elasticity of the cell itself is also briefly described. Finally, we analyze and discuss the underlying mechanism by which elastic substrate affects nerve cell behavior.

The global morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases are increasing yearly, among which vascular diseases are the main cause of death. Traditional drugs have multiple limitations in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, and there is a lack of effective means to treat cardiovascular diseases. Exosomes, as transmitters of important intercellular information, are involved in normal physiological and pathological processes of blood vessels and are closely associated with intimal hyperplasia, vascular sclerosis and thrombosis. Engineered exosomes are obtained by modification of natural membrane vesicles, and they have the advantages of targeting, extended duration of action and detectability, which can be an excellent alternative for cardiovascular disease treatment. There is an absence of reviews on how exosomes secreted by various cells affect disease regression when vascular homeostasis is disrupted and how engineered exosomes are regulated to maintain vascular homeostasis. Therefore, this paper reviews the regulatory mechanisms of exosomes in diseases related to vascular homeostasis, briefly describes the application of engineered exosomes in vessels, and explores the potential of engineered exosomes in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, providing a new idea for the precise regulation of exosomes in the treatment of vascular diseases.