Nano-Engineered Scaffold for Osteoarticular Regenerative Medicine

In the last decade, regenerative medicine has benefited from the exponential development of nanomaterial sciences, tissue engineering and cell-based therapies. More and more sophisticated designed structures and surface topologies are being developed to basically mimic the extracellular matrix of native tissues such as cartilage and bone. Here we give an overview of the progress made in osteochondral lesion repair, with nano-engineered scaffolds comprising building blocks such as nanoparticles, nanotubes, layer-by-layer nano-assemblies, molecular self-assembly, nanopatterned surfaces…. This nano-engineering technology is coupled with bio-functionalization, by the use of adhesion peptides, growth factors, or deoxyribonucleic acid, to drive cell adhesion, proliferation and behavior towards tissue regeneration. In osteochondral regeneration, the challenge is the simultaneous development of chondrocytes and cartilage extracellular matrix on the one side and a well vascularized bone tissue with osteoblasts on the other sid

Nanoscale Stiffness Distribution in Bone Metastasis

Nanomechanical heterogeneity is expected to have an effect on elasticity, injury and bone remodelling. In normal bone, we have two types of cells (osteoclasts and osteoblasts) working together to maintain existing bone. Bone cancers can produce factors that make the osteoclasts work harder. This means that more bone is destroyed than rebuilt, and leads to weakening of the affected bone. We report here the first demonstration of the nanoscale stiffness distribution in bone metastases before and after treatment of animals with the bisphosphonate Risedronate, a drug which is currently used for the treatment of bone metastases in patients with advanced cancers. The strategy used here is applicable to a wide class of biological tissues and may serve as a new reflection for biologically inspired scaffolds technologies

Electrostatic template-assisted deposition of microparticles on electrospun nanofibers: towards microstructured functional biochips for screening applications

Electrostatic Template-Assisted Deposition (ETAD) of microparticles is described as a new process to control the deposition of microparticles by electrospraying onto a substrate. It relies on the construction of an electrostatic template by electrospinning a thin layer of fibers onto a micropatterned collector. Because the fibers cannot release their charges when they are suspended over cavities of the micropatterned collector, an electrostatic template is formed with repulsive and attractive domains. This electrostatic template is then used to guide precisely the particle deposition during the electrospraying step. Microstructured bi-layer composites with a great variety of micropatterns can thus be elaborated with any kind of materials allowing the use of the ETAD process for a wide range of applications. As a proof of concept, the ETAD process was applied for the production of composite scaffolds with poly(ε-caprolactone) nanofibers covered by a micropatterned layer of hydroxyapatite. This scaffold was then embedded in a biochip containing 21 wells and used for MG-63 cell proliferation and mineralization studies, showing their possible application in the screening of the scaffold structure for tissue engineering