Microfabrication of a biomimetic arcade-like electrospun scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering applications

Designing and fabricating hierarchical geometries for tissue engineering (TE) applications is the major challenge and also the biggest opportunity of regenerative medicine in recent years, being the in vitro recreation of the arcade-like cartilaginous tissue one of the most critical examples due to the current inefficient standard medical procedures and the lack of fabrication techniques capable of building scaffolds with the required architecture in a cost and time effective way. Taking this into account, we suggest a feasible and accurate methodology that uses a sequential adaptation of an electrospinning-electrospraying set up to construct a system comprising both fibres and sacrificial microparticles. Polycaprolactone (PCL) and polyethylene glycol were respectively used as bulk and sacrificial biomaterials, leading to a bi-layered PCL scaffold which presented not only a depth-dependent fibre orientation similar to natural cartilage, but also mechanical features and porosity compatible with cartilage TE approaches. In fact, cell viability studies confirmed the biocompatibility of the scaffold and its ability to guarantee suitable cell adhesion, proliferation and migration throughout the 3D anisotropic fibrous network. Additionally, likewise the natural anisotropic cartilage, the PCL scaffold was capable of inducing oriented cell-material interactions since the morphology, alignment and density of the chondrocytes changed relatively to the specific topographic cues of each electrospun layer.publishe

Carbon Nanomaterial-Based Hydrogels as Scaffolds in Tissue Engineering: A Comprehensive Review

Thiago Domingues Stocco,1 Tianyi Zhang,2 Edgar Dimitrov,2 Anupama Ghosh,3 Alessandro Marcio Hakme da Silva,1 Wanessa CMA Melo,4 Willian Gonçalves Tsumura,1 André Diniz Rosa Silva,5,6 Gustavo F Sousa,6 Bartolomeu C Viana,6 Mauricio Terrones,2 Anderson Oliveira Lobo6 1Bioengineering Program, Scientific and Technological Institute, Brazil University, São Paulo, SP, Brazil; 2Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA; 3Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering (DEQM), Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 4FTMC, State Research institute Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Department of Functional Materials and Electronics, Vilnius, Lithuanian; 5FATEC, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil; 6Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Advanced Materials (LIMAV), BioMatLab Group, Materials Science and Engineering Graduate Program, Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), Teresina, PI, BrazilCorrespondence: Anderson Oliveira Lobo, Tel +55 86 981115013, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Carbon-based nanomaterials (CBNs) are a category of nanomaterials with various systems based on combinations of sp2 and sp3 hybridized carbon bonds, morphologies, and functional groups. CBNs can exhibit distinguished properties such as high mechanical strength, chemical stability, high electrical conductivity, and biocompatibility. These desirable physicochemical properties have triggered their uses in many fields, including biomedical applications. In this review, we specifically focus on applying CBNs as scaffolds in tissue engineering, a therapeutic approach whereby CBNs can act for the regeneration or replacement of damaged tissue. Here, an overview of the structures and properties of different CBNs will first be provided. We will then discuss state-of-the-art advancements of CBNs and hydrogels as scaffolds for regenerating various types of human tissues. Finally, a perspective of future potentials and challenges in this field will be presented. Since this is a very rapidly growing field, we expect that this review will promote interdisciplinary efforts in developing effective tissue regeneration scaffolds for clinical applications.Keywords: carbon, biomaterial, nanotechnology, tissue engineering, scaffol