Engineered regeneration最新文献

Mechanically strong magnesium-doped Ca-silicate bioceramic scaffolds have many advantages in repairing large segmental bone defects. Herein we combine β-TCP with 6 mol% magnesium-doped calcium silicate (Mg6) at three different ratios (TCP, TCP+15 %Mg6, TCP+85 %Mg6) to find an appropriate ratio which can exert considerable influence on bone regeneration. In this study, the bioceramic scaffolds were assessed for mechanical strength, bioactive ion release, biocompatibility, and osteogenic capacity through in vitro testing. Additionally, the potential for promoting bone regeneration was investigated through in vivo implantation of porous tube-like scaffolds. The results showed that the compressive strength increased with the augmentation of Mg6 component. Especially the compressive strength of the TCP+85 %Mg6 group reached 38.1 ± 3.8 MPa, three times that of the other two groups. Furthermore, extensive in vivo investigations revealed that the TCP+85 %Mg6 bioceramic scaffolds were particularly beneficial for the osteogenic capacity of critical-sized femoral defects (20 mm in length). Altogether, magnesium doping in bioceramic implants is a promising strategy to provide stronger mechanical support and enhance osteogenesis to accelerate the repair of large defects.

Skin damage resulting from burns, injuries, or diseases can lead to significant functional and esthetic deficits. However, traditional treatments, such as skin grafting, have limitations including limited donor skin availability, poor aesthetics, and functional impairment. Skin tissue engineering provides a promising alternative, with engineered artificial skins offering a highly viable avenue. Engineered artificial skin is designed to mimic or replace the functions of natural human skin and find applications in various medical treatments, particularly for severe burns, chronic wounds, and other skin injuries or defects. These artificial skins aim to promote wound healing, provide temporary coverage, permanent skin replacement, and restore the skin's barrier function. Artificial skins have diverse applications in medicine and wound care, addressing burns, chronic wounds, and traumatic injuries. They also serve as valuable tools for research in tissue engineering, offering experimental models for studying wound healing mechanisms, testing new biomaterials, and exploring innovative approaches to skin regeneration. This review provides an overview of current construction strategies for engineered artificial skin, including cell sources, biomaterials, and construction techniques. It further explores the primary application areas and future prospects of artificial skin, highlighting their potential to revolutionize skin reconstruction and advance the field of regenerative medicine.

Cell alignment plays a vital role in tissue regeneration, especially for neural cells like neurons. Recent progress in biomaterial technologies has enabled the creation of various approaches for engineering neural cell alignment, which has demonstrated significant effectiveness in several biomedical applications. This review primarily concentrates on the latest advancements for in vitro engineering of neural cell alignment. We also summarized their applications in biomedical research, particularly their potential in addressing nervous system injuries. Finally, we analyze the current challenges associated with engineering neural cell alignment and provide insights into future perspectives in this field.

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanoscale substances produced by most cells, which were not fully understood in the early years. However, with the development of advanced techniques, researchers have discovered that EVs play an essential role in information exchange and signal transduction between cells. Nowadays, EVs are being used, modified, and developed as a natural drug carrier in various medical fields because of their high biocompatibility and natural affinity with the source body. Many studies have shown that multiple sources of EVs have been modified and utilized in cancer therapy to improve patients' treatment windows and effectively prolong patient survival. In this paper, we review the advances in the treatment of cancer based on EVs. We summarize the types of EVs loading therapy, the modes of drug loading and the latest therapeutic applications of multiple modes combined with EVs in cancer treatment. We conclude with a discussion of the current status, challenges, and prospects of EVs as a tool for tumor therapy.

Cells, wrapped among their neighbors and surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM), form cell-cell adhesions and cell-ECM adhesions. Extracellular biophysical cues exert a far-reaching influence on a sweeping of cell behaviors, including signal transduction, gene expression, and fate determination. Cell-cell adhesions mediated by intercellular adhesion molecules bridge the membranes of adjacent cells through either heterophilic or homophilic adhesive interactions, playing a critical part in multicellular structural maintenance and, therefore, a foundation for multicellular organisms. Cell-ECM adhesions are derived from the interaction between cell adhesion receptors and multi-adhesive matrix proteins to ensure cell and tissue cohesion. Whereas cells not only unilaterally respond to certain cues from extracellular environment but can also alter the physicochemical profiles of the externalities and hence hold important implications for clinical applications. The essential function of cell adhesions has created tremendous interests in developing methods for measuring and studying cell adhesion properties, namely, cellular force. Here, we describe the collection of cell adhesive inputs on cellular signaling cascades and the “crosstalk” between cell-cell adhesions and cell-ECM adhesions. Furthermore, we provide the summary of the current methods to measure such cell adhesive forces.

Sensory hair cells are responsible for detecting and transmitting sound in the inner ear, and damage to HCs leads to hearing loss. HCs do not regenerate spontaneously in adult mammals, which makes the hearing loss permanent. However, hair cells and supporting cells have the same precursors in the inner ear, and in newborn mice, the adjacent SCs can be activated by gene manipulation to differentiate into newly regenerated hair cells. Here, we demonstrate the role of the Ras association domain family member 2 (Rassf2) in supporting cell to hair cell trans-differentiation in the inner ear. Using the AAV vector (AAV-ie) to upregulate Rassf2 expression promoted supporting cell division and hair cell production in cultured cochlear organoids. Also, AAV-Rassf2 enhanced the regenerative ability of Lgr5⁺ SCs in the postnatal cochlea without impairing hearing, and this might due to the modulation of the Wnt, Hedgehog and Notch signaling pathways. Furthermore, AAV-Rassf2 enhances cochlear supporting cell division and hair cell production in the neomycin injury model. In summary, our results suggest that Rassf2 is a key component in HC regenerative repair, and gene modulation mediated by adeno-associated virus may be a promising gene therapy for hearing repair.

Multiplex, rapid and accurate virus quantification plays a great value in biomedical detection. Here, a novel one step, wash-free immunoassay platform based bioinspired PhC barcodes for multiplexed virus quantification was explored. PhC barcodes were decorated with PDA by self-polymerization of DA, thus this nanocomposite hybridized PhC barcodes facilitated the adsorption of FITC labelled antibodies and quenched itself photoluminescent, allowing a fast responsive composite platform. In the presence of target analyte, the FITC-labelled detection antibody was released from the surface of PDA decorated microcarrier to specifically bind to the target analyte, thus recovered the photoluminescence. In addition, the PhC microcarrier was enabled to carry out various color barcode for different targets detection though tuning internal periodic structures. Based on these excellent performances of the nanocomposite barcode, this method can not only capture H1N1, H5N1, SARS-CoV-2 simultaneously with rapid, accuracy but also accomplish multiplex quantification detection with high-sensitivity. Furthermore, our developed platform was also achieved with high-sensitivity and high-specificity through the verification of clinical samples, thus laying out a new avenue for multiplex virus detection in clinical diagnosis.

As a new kind of microcarrier device, microneedles are featured by micrometer needle arrays with an overall size in the centimeter scale. Due to the needle shape and the micron size, microneedles can penetrate the skin without harming nerves and blood vessels, which causes many advantages such as minimally invasive, safe and convenient. The past few decades have witnessed a great leap in microneedles research. The main materials of microneedles have changed from metal and ceramic to polymers with more complex functions, and the optimization of materials and preparation strategies has led to a greater variety of microneedle styles. Among them, the construction or combination of smaller size structures or materials on microneedles to fabricate hierarchical microneedles is a major research hotspot. Here, we present the recent research progress of hierarchical microneedles for biomedicine. We begin by discussing the fabrication strategies of hierarchical microneedles, including mainstream casting and coating methods based on microneedle molds and three dimensions (3D) printing methods. We then expand the discussion from the hierarchical microneedles with porous structure to those composited with nanomaterials. Eventually, we have a discussion about the research progress of hierarchical microneedles in the area of biomarkers detection and transdermal drug delivery, as well as its future development direction.

Osteoporosis (OP) is an age-related disease of bone metabolism, characterized by bone mass loss and bone microarchitecture deterioration, the poor osteogenesis microenvironment of OP caused hardly repairing of the bone defects. As a dynamic process to fuel cellular renovation, autophagy has been proved to play a vital role in regulating cell differentiation and maintaining bone homeostasis. Traditional bone repairing biomaterials are hardly repairing the bone defects under OP pathological microenvironment. Therefore, it is essential to development novel biomaterials to improve osteoporotic osteogenesis. Compared to biochemical cues, biophysical cues exhibited more advantages in biocompatible and side effects. Herein, inspired by the importance of enhanced autophagic response in osteoporotic environment, we intend to utilize the micro-/nano-structured hydroxyapatite (mnHA) bioceramics as the mimic structure of natural bone tissue to regulate autophagic activity in ovariectomy bone mesenchymal stem cells (OVX-BMSCs), finally promote to bone regeneration in OP condition. The results indicated that mnHA bioceramics promoted cell adhesion and osteogenesis of OVX-BMSCs, and enhanced autophagy level in OVX-BMSCs. In the calvarial defects of OVX-rats, the mnHA scaffold acquired excellent bone repair effect. According to the current findings, regulating the level of autophagy could be a promising strategy for improve osteoporotic osteogenesis in the future.

Infections at the placement site of biomaterial-based devices and subsequent scar formation results in morbidity, which may require revision surgery. Biomaterials intended for permanent implantation in the body need to be biologically inert to avoid excessive foreign body response and to reduce bacterial attachment. In this study, we show that polymeric materials commonly used in medical devices, including polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polypropylene, treated by gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) or by accelerated neutral atom beam (ANAB) result in a nanoscale-modified surface topography that changes the ability of extracellular proteins to bind. This leads to decreased bacterial attachment and an attenuated inflammatory response using both in vitro and in vivo assays. Differential adsorption of extracellular proteins to the polymeric surface improved the competitive attachment of osteoblasts over bacteria, without resorting to growth factor of antibiotic use.