ELECTROSPUN ANTIMICROBIAL SCAFFOLDS FOR WOUND MANAGEMENT AND METHODS OF APPLICATIONS

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Hydroxyapatite-intertwined hybrid nanofibres for the mineralization of osteoblasts

Advances in tissue engineering have enabled the development of bioactive composite materials to generate biomimetic nanofibrous scaffolds for bone replacement therapies. Polymeric biocomposite nanofibrous scaffolds architecturally mimic the native extracellular matrix (ECM), delivering tremendous regenerative potential for bone tissue engineering. In the present study, biocompatible poly(l-lactic acid)-co-poly(ε-caprolactone)-silk fibroin-hydroxyapatite-hyaluronic acid (PLACL-SF-HaP-HA) nanofibrous scaffolds were fabricated by electrospinning to mimic the native ECM. The developed nanofibrous scaffolds were characterized in terms of fibre morphology, functional group, hydrophilicity and mechanical strength, using SEM, FTIR, contact angle and tabletop tensile-tester, respectively. The nanofibrous scaffolds showed a higher level of pore size and increased porosity of up to 95% for the exchange of nutrients and metabolic wastes. The fibre diameters obtained were in the range of around 255 ± 13.4-789 ± 22.41 nm. Osteoblasts cultured on PLACL-SF-HaP-HA showed a significantly (p < 0.001) higher level of proliferation (53%) and increased osteogenic differentiation and mineralization (63%) for the inclusion of bioactive molecules SF-HA. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) data proved that the presence of calcium and phosphorous in PLACL-SF-HaP-HA nanofibrous scaffolds was greater than in the other nanofibrous scaffolds with cultured osteoblasts. The obtained results for functionalized PLACL-SF-HaP-HA nanofibrous scaffolds proved them to be a potential biocomposite for bone tissue engineering. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Inorganic additive-incorporated composites with infrared radiation performance for thermal management

Purpose: Personal thermal management in functional textiles is in increasing demand for health care, outdoor activity and energy saving. Thus, developing new strategies is highly desired for radiative cooling and/or heating by manipulation of the transmissivity, reflectivity and absorptivity of the textiles within solar energy and human body heat radiation ranges. Design/methodology/approach: Inorganic additives including TiO2, Fe2O3, carbon black (CB), graphene and mica were incorporated into polymer films. The inorganic additives' full spectrum properties and thermal responses were comprehensively investigated. Findings: The CB composite film showed the highest absorptivity over the full solar to human body radiation spectrum. The mica-white (mica-w) (mica coated with TiO2) and mica-red (mica-r) (mica coated with Fe2O3) composites showed the lowest solar energy absorptivity and a strong body heat radiation reflectivity. Furthermore, according to composites' thermal responses to the simulated solar and human body radiations, CB and mica are promising for both cooling and heating when applied in dual-functional thermal management textiles. Research limitations/implications: Research has limitation related the amount of additives which can be added to textile. When powder is added to polyester yarn, the amount is limited by 2–3%. When powder is added to the composite which is used for printing, the amount of powder is limited by 5%. Practical implications: A lot of apparel, especially sport apparel, contains prints. Decoration is one part of print application. Now, a lot of companies work under development of different additives, which provide additional properties to apparel. The closest targets for powder added to prints are cooling and heat retention. Quite often, inorganic additives possess dual properties: the inorganic additives may be heat reflective which his needed for heat retention, but may have high-thermal conductivity, which works well for cooling. Human body has complicated mechanism of heat exchange: convection, radiation and moisture evaporations play main role. The same additive may be cooling if there is a contact with skin but may be heating (IR reflective) if placed in the second or third layer. Thus, effect is needed to be studied first before real application. Originality/value: This work could provide a comprehensive guideline for the rational design and application of thermal management composite textile materials by revealing the full solar to human body radiation performance of a series of inorganic materials.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial and technical support from Sportmaster Group of Companies Pte. Ltd

Biological and mechanical interplay at the macro- and microscales modulates the cell-niche fate

Tissue development, regeneration, or de-novo tissue engineering in-vitro, are based on reciprocal cell-niche interactions. Early tissue formation mechanisms, however, remain largely unknown given complex in-vivo multifactoriality, and limited tools to effectively characterize and correlate specific micro-scaled bio-mechanical interplay. We developed a unique model system, based on decellularized porcine cardiac extracellular matrices (pcECMs)—as representative natural soft-tissue biomaterial—to study a spectrum of common cell–niche interactions. Model monocultures and 1:1 co-cultures on the pcECM of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) were mechano-biologically characterized using macro- (Instron), and micro- (AFM) mechanical testing, histology, SEM and molecular biology aspects using RT-PCR arrays. The obtained data was analyzed using developed statistics, principal component and gene-set analyses tools. Our results indicated biomechanical cell-type dependency, bi-modal elasticity distributions at the micron cell-ECM interaction level, and corresponding differing gene expression profiles. We further show that hMSCs remodel the ECM, HUVECs enable ECM tissue-specific recognition, and their co-cultures synergistically contribute to tissue integration—mimicking conserved developmental pathways. We also suggest novel quantifiable measures as indicators of tissue assembly and integration. This work may benefit basic and translational research in materials science, developmental biology, tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and cancer biomechanics.NRF (Natl Research Foundation, S’pore)Published versio