Nanoparticles in tissue engineering: Applications, challenges and prospects

Tissue engineering (TE) is an interdisciplinary field integrating engineering, material science and medical biology that aims to develop biological substitutes to repair, replace, retain, or enhance tissue and organ-level functions. Current TE methods face obstacles including a lack of appropriate biomaterials, ineffective cell growth and a lack of techniques for capturing appropriate physiological architectures as well as unstable and insufficient production of growth factors to stimulate cell communication and proper response. In addition, the inability to control cellular functions and their various properties (biological, mechanical, electrochemical and others) and issues of biomolecular detection and biosensors, all add to the current limitations in this field. Nanoparticles are at the forefront of nanotechnology and their distinctive size-dependent properties have shown promise in overcoming many of the obstacles faced by TE today. Despite tremendous progress in the use of nanoparticles over the last 2 decades, the full potential of the applications of nanoparticles in solving TE problems has yet to be realized. This review presents an overview of the diverse applications of various types of nanoparticles in TE applications and challenges that need to be overcome for nanotechnology to reach its full potential.Scopu

Development of nitric oxide releasing visible light crosslinked gelatin methacrylate hydrogel for rapid closure of diabetic wounds

Management of non-healing and slow to heal diabetic wounds is a major concern in healthcare across the world. Numerous techniques have been investigated to solve the issue of delayed wound healing, though, mostly unable to promote complete healing of diabetic wounds due to the lack of proper cell proliferation, poor cell-cell communication, and higher chances of wound infections. These challenges can be minimized by using hydrogel based wound healing patches loaded with bioactive agents. Gelatin methacrylate (GelMA) has been proven to be a highly cell friendly, cell adhesive, and inexpensive biopolymer for various tissue engineering and wound healing applications. In this study, S-Nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine (SNAP), a nitric oxide (NO) donor, was incorporated in a highly porous GelMA hydrogel patch to improve cell proliferation, facilitate rapid cell migration, and enhance diabetic wound healing. We adopted a visible light crosslinking method to fabricate this highly porous biodegradable but relatively stable patch. Developed patches were characterized for morphology, NO release, cell proliferation and migration, and diabetic wound healing in a rat model. The obtained results indicate that SNAP loaded visible light crosslinked GelMA hydrogel patches can be highly effective in promoting diabetic wound healing.Scopu

Erratum: Antimicrobials: A global alliance for optimizing their rational use in intra-abdominal infections (AGORA). [World J Emerg Surg. 11, (2016) (33)] DOI: 10.1186/s13017-016-0089-y

The original article [1] contains an error whereby a co-author, Boris Sakakushev has their family name spelt incorrectly as 'Sakakhushev'. The authors would therefore like it known that the correct spelling of the family name is 'Sakakushev'. © The Author(s)