Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering最新文献

Low temperature plasma (LTP) process is a green method to impart surface characteristics and tailored functionalities to materials for revolutionary changes in many areas such as biomedical, packaging, sensors etc. Many natural and synthetic polymeric systems were used to fabricate stimuli-responsive systems with a wide range of applications. To overcome the difficulty of adding different chemical moieties to the surface of fabricated systems via wet methods, plasma treatment has been utilized for surface functionalization, stimuli-responsive polymer-coating deposition, grafting, and patterning. Plasma processes do not utilize strong chemical agents and there is no need of post-purification, so it is considered eco-friendly compared to conventional wet chemical process. This mini- review presents the recent developments of intelligent polymeric materials and the impact of plasma process as an enabling technology for the possibility of fabricating smart biomaterials surface.

Forces generated intrinsically or perceived externally by cells have significant implications in cell development biology. This relatively nascent field, mechanobiology, is currently being investigated widely in almost every dimension of biological sciences. From a biomedical point of view, hydrogels, a hydrated network of polymer molecules, have provided many excellent scaffold platforms. Moreover, applying extrinsic force to the cells using a magnetic field has always been preferred. In such a scenario, ferrogel, which is hydrogel incorporating magnetically active nanomaterials, offers an exciting platform that can provide cells with their required niche and apply a controlled amount of extrinsic force using a magnetic field. From tissue engineering to 3D Bioprinting and developing biosensing platforms, ferrogels are gaining tremendous attention worldwide. Therefore, the current literature will focus on the mechanobiological importance of ferrogels and their potential application in biomedicine.

Micro and nanoscale 3D printing has been broadly employed for the manufacturing of biomimetic architectures in the fields of tissue regeneration, personalized medicine, and smart biodevices. The emerging intelligent biomaterials significantly expand the diversity and functionality of printed structures. In this review, the commonly used micro and nanoscale 3D printing techniques were briefly introduced. Recent innovations on intelligent biomaterials like biopolymers, hydrogels, and metallic/ceramic biomaterials were reviewed. The current limitations and future opportunities of 3D-printed intelligent biomaterials for biomedical applications were highlighted. Overall, this review will help the new researchers to understand the underlying principles, functional properties, and potential applications of intelligent biomaterials in micro and nanoscale 3D printing field.

Medical implants play an essential role in individuals' health and quality of life to replace, support, or enhance a biological structure in bodies. The selection of materials, considering their properties, is critical for implants depending on their application areas. There is a wide range of polymers used in biomedical implants, where the materials' flexibility and transport capability are needed. Since bacterial adhesion on polymeric surfaces leads to serious infectious diseases and deterioration of the implants, the development of rational surface design strategies is of great importance. Herein, we highlight synthetic, non-biodegradable polymer-based biomedical implants and the recent strategies to create antibacterial surfaces. Different types of polymer-based implants with their uses are summarized, along with their inherent antibacterial properties and additional surface modification strategies. Finally, we discuss the challenges of the current approaches and future perspectives to enhance antibacterial performance and obtain multimodal functionality of polymer-based medical implants.

Advanced regenerative therapy aims to repair pathologically damaged tissue by cell transplantation in conjunction with supporting scaffolds. Gelatin-based scaffolds have attracted much attention in recent years due to their great bio-affinity that encourages the regeneration of tissues. Nowadays, by strengthening gelatin-based systems, cutting-edge methods like 3D bioprinting, freeze-drying, microfluidics and gelatin functionalization have shown excellent mimicry of natural tissue. The fabrication of porous gelatin-based scaffolds for wider tissue engineering applications including skin, cartilage, bone, liver, and cardiovascular is reviewed in this work. Additionally, the crosslinking procedures and the physicochemical characteristics of the gelatin-based scaffolds are also studied. Now, gelatin is considered one of the highest potential biomaterials for impending trends in which the gelatin-based scaffolds are used as a support structure for regenerative therapy.

Hydrogels, due to their hydrophilic nature, tunable chemical, mechanical and biological properties, have shown great promises for wound dressing application. Nevertheless, conventional hydrogels can only passively participate in the wound healing process by maintaining the moisture around wound, which limits the wound healing efficacy. Recent developments of hydrogel wound dressings have focused on the mechanically active adhesive hydrogels and self-adapting hydrogels, which are able to actively accelerate the wound healing process. In this review, we first review the design strategies and function mechanisms of both types of hydrogel dressings, followed by the discussion on the application of those hydrogel dressings for the treatment of different type of wounds. Finally, we present the future trends and research opportunities for the development of next generation “smart” hydrogel materials for wound healing application.

Smart and intelligent biomaterials can be designed to carry out special tasks in modern medicine and sustainability, and engineered to identify and respond to environmental stimuli. Therefore, intelligent biomaterials have a large number of applications that can go from health (e.g. tissue engineering, drug delivery and biosensors), to more recently explored environmental applications involving ecosystem restoration (e.g. coral reefs and environmental remediation). The use of 3D printing technology opens the vision towards automated biomanufacturing with more precision and definition. With this broad range of applications, smart and intelligent biomaterials are used separately or in combination with 3D printing to enable the design of eco-friendly and sustainable solutions that can be used to overcome challenges for both; modern medicine and the environment.

Abnormal cardiac development is intimately associated with congenital heart disease. During development, a sponge-like network of muscle fibers in the endocardium, known as trabeculation, becomes compacted. Biomechanical forces regulate myocardial differentiation and proliferation to form trabeculation, while the molecular mechanism is still enigmatic. Biomechanical forces, including intracardiac hemodynamic flow and myocardial contractile force, activate a host of molecular signaling pathways to mediate cardiac morphogenesis. While mechanotransduction pathways to initiate ventricular trabeculation is well studied, deciphering the relative importance of hemodynamic shear vs. mechanical contractile forces to modulate the transition from trabeculation to compaction requires advanced imaging tools and genetically tractable animal models. For these reasons, the advent of 4D multi-scale light-sheet imaging and complementary multiplex live imaging via micro-CT in the beating zebrafish heart and live chick embryos, respectively. Thus, this review highlights the complementary animal models and advanced imaging needed to elucidate the mechanotransduction underlying cardiac ventricular development.

Immune cells can positively regulate new blood vessel formation by secreting proangiogenic mediators and modulating endothelial cell (EC) and endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) activities (e.g., homing). Accordingly, timely management of immune cell behavior is performed to promote angiogenesis and accelerate tissue healing. Different characteristics of biomaterials and scaffolds, including chemical (e.g., composition) and physical (e.g., topography) properties, were proven to influence the angiogenic potential of immune cells. Moreover, specific biomolecular cargoes can be loaded into 3D scaffolds to affect immune cells' behavior in favor of improved angiogenesis. Excess neovascularization can cause pathological conditions, thus establishing a balance between pro- and anti-angiogenic mediators should be taken into account once developing biomaterials and scaffolds for modulating immune cell activities. This review provides an in-depth and concise review of the angiogenic-regulatory effects of immune cells and discusses the importance of its modulation by biomaterials and scaffolds for tissue engineering.