scholarly journals Fabrication of Piezoelectric Electrospun Termite Nest-like 3D Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (24) ◽  
pp. 7684
Author(s):  
Thanapon Muenwacha ◽  
Oratai Weeranantanapan ◽  
Nuannoi Chudapongse ◽  
Francisco Javier Diaz Sanchez ◽  
Santi Maensiri ◽  
...  

A high piezoelectric coefficient polymer and biomaterial for bone tissue engineering— poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP)—has been successfully fabricated into 3D scaffolds using the wet electrospinning method. Three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds have significant advantages for tissue engineering applications. Electrospinning is an advanced method and can fabricate 3D scaffolds. However, it has some limitations and is difficult to fabricate nanofibers into 3D shapes because of the low controllability of porosity and internal pore shape. The PVDF-HFP powders were dissolved in a mixture of acetone and dimethylformamide with a ratio of 1:1 at various concentrations of 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 wt%. However, only the solutions at 15 and 17 wt% with optimized electrospinning parameters can be fabricated into biomimetic 3D shapes. The produced PVDF-HFP 3D scaffolds are in the cm size range and mimic the structure of the natural nests of termites of the genus Apicotermes. In addition, the 3D nanofiber-based structure can also generate more electrical signals than the conventional 2D ones, as the third dimension provides more compression. The cell interaction with the 3D nanofibers scaffold was investigated. The in vitro results demonstrated that the NIH 3T3 cells could attach and migrate in the 3D structures. While conventional electrospinning yields 2D (flat) structures, our bio-inspired electrospun termite nest-like 3D scaffolds are better suited for tissue engineering applications since they can potentially mimic native tissues as they have biomimetic structure, piezoelectric, and biological properties.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Yasaman Delkash ◽  
Maxence Gouin ◽  
Tanguy Rimbeault ◽  
Fatemeh Mohabatpour ◽  
Petros Papagerakis ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an emerging fabrication technique to create 3D constructs with living cells. Notably, bioprinting bioinks are limited due to the mechanical weakness of natural biomaterials and the low bioactivity of synthetic peers. This paper presents the development of a natural bioink from chicken eggwhite and sodium alginate for bioprinting cell-laden patches to be used in endothelialized tissue engineering applications. Eggwhite was utilized for enhanced biological properties, while sodium alginate was used to improve bioink printability. The rheological properties of bioinks with varying amounts of sodium alginate were examined with the results illustrating that 2.0–3.0% (w/v) sodium alginate was suitable for printing patch constructs. The printed patches were then characterized mechanically and biologically, and the results showed that the printed patches exhibited elastic moduli close to that of natural heart tissue (20–27 kPa) and more than 94% of the vascular endothelial cells survived in the examination period of one week post 3D bioprinting. Our research also illustrated the printed patches appropriate water uptake ability (>1800%).


Marine Drugs ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Truc Cong Ho ◽  
Jin-Seok Park ◽  
Sung-Yeoul Kim ◽  
Hoyeol Lee ◽  
Ju-Sop Lim ◽  
...  

For tissue engineering applications, biodegradable scaffolds containing high molecular weights (MW) of collagen and sodium alginate have been developed and characterized. However, the properties of low MW collagen-based scaffolds have not been studied in previous research. This work examined the distinctive properties of low MW collagen-based scaffolds with alginate unmodified and modified by subcritical water. Besides, we developed a facile method to cross-link water-soluble scaffolds using glutaraldehyde in an aqueous ethanol solution. The prepared cross-linked scaffolds showed good structural properties with high porosity (~93%) and high cross-linking degree (50–60%). Compared with collagen (6000 Da)-based scaffolds, collagen (25,000 Da)-based scaffolds exhibited higher stability against collagenase degradation and lower weight loss in phosphate buffer pH 7.4. Collagen (25,000 Da)-based scaffolds with modified alginate tended to improve antioxidant capacity compared with scaffolds containing unmodified alginate. Interestingly, in vitro coagulant activity assay demonstrated that collagen (25,000 Da)-based scaffolds with modified alginate (C25-A63 and C25-A21) significantly reduced the clotting time of human plasma compared with scaffolds consisting of unmodified alginate. Although some further investigations need to be done, collagen (25,000 Da)-based scaffolds with modified alginate should be considered as a potential candidate for tissue engineering applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (21) ◽  
pp. 11600
Author(s):  
Dong Jin Choi ◽  
Kyoung Choi ◽  
Sang Jun Park ◽  
Young-Jin Kim ◽  
Seok Chung ◽  
...  

Gelatin has excellent biological properties, but its poor physical properties are a major obstacle to its use as a biomaterial ink. These disadvantages not only worsen the printability of gelatin biomaterial ink, but also reduce the dimensional stability of its 3D scaffolds and limit its application in the tissue engineering field. Herein, biodegradable suture fibers were added into a gelatin biomaterial ink to improve the printability, mechanical strength, and dimensional stability of the 3D printed scaffolds. The suture fiber reinforced gelatin 3D scaffolds were fabricated using the thermo-responsive properties of gelatin under optimized 3D printing conditions (−10 °C cryogenic plate, 40–80 kPa pneumatic pressure, and 9 mm/s printing speed), and were crosslinked using EDC/NHS to maintain their 3D structures. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the morphologies of the 3D printed scaffolds maintained their 3D structure after crosslinking. The addition of 0.5% (w/v) of suture fibers increased the printing accuracy of the 3D printed scaffolds to 97%. The suture fibers also increased the mechanical strength of the 3D printed scaffolds by up to 6-fold, and the degradation rate could be controlled by the suture fiber content. In in vitro cell studies, DNA assay results showed that human dermal fibroblasts’ proliferation rate of a 3D printed scaffold containing 0.5% suture fiber was 10% higher than that of a 3D printed scaffold without suture fibers after 14 days of culture. Interestingly, the supplement of suture fibers into gelatin biomaterial ink was able to minimize the cell-mediated contraction of the cell cultured 3D scaffolds over the cell culture period. These results show that advanced biomaterial inks can be developed by supplementing biodegradable fibers to improve the poor physical properties of natural polymer-based biomaterial inks.


2008 ◽  
Vol 55-57 ◽  
pp. 685-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Chamchongkaset ◽  
Sorada Kanokpanont ◽  
David L. Kaplan ◽  
Siriporn Damrongsakkul

Silk has been used commercially as biomedical sutures for decades. Recently silk fibroin, especially from Bombyx mori silkworm, has been explored for many tissue engineering applications such as bone and cartilage due to its impressive biological compatibility and mechanical properties. In Thailand, Thai native silkworms have been long cultivated. Distinct characteristics of cocoon Thai silk are its yellow color and coarse filament. There is more sericin in Thai silk than in other Bombyx mori silks. These characteristics provide Thai silk a unique texture for textile industry. It is therefore the aim of this study to develop three-dimensional silk fibroin-based scaffolds from Thai yellow cocoon “Nangnoi-Srisaket” of Bombyx mori silkworms using salt-leaching method. To enhance the biological properties, type A gelatin, the denature form of collagen having good biocompactibility, was used to conjugate with silk fibroin scaffolds. The pore size of salt-leached silk fibroin scaffold structure represented the size of salt crystals used (600-710µm). After gelatin conjugation, gelatin was partly formed fibers inside the pores of silk fibroin scaffolds resulting in fiber-like structure with highly interconnection. Gelatin conjugation enhanced the compressive modulus of silk fibroin scaffolds by 93%. The results on in vitro culture using mouse osteoblast-like cells (MC3T3-E1) showed that gelatin conjugation could promote the cell proliferation in silk fibroin scaffolds. Moreover, the observed morphology of cells proliferated inside the scaffold after 14 days of culture showed the larger spreading area of cells on conjugated gelatin/silk fibroin scaffolds, compared to round-shaped cells on silk fibroin scaffolds. The results implied that Thai silk fibroin looked promising to be applied in tissue engineering and gelatin conjugation on Thai silk fibroin scaffolds could enhance the biological properties of scaffolds.


Author(s):  
Julian R Jones ◽  
Peter D Lee ◽  
Larry L Hench

Biological organisms have evolved to produce hierarchical three-dimensional structures with dimensions ranging from nanometres to metres. Replicating these complex living hierarchical structures for the purpose of repair or replacement of degenerating tissues is one of the great challenges of chemistry, physics, biology and materials science. This paper describes how the use of hierarchical porous materials in tissue engineering applications has the potential to shift treatments from tissue replacement to tissue regeneration. The criteria that a porous material must fulfil to be considered ideal for bone tissue engineering applications are listed. Bioactive glass foam scaffolds have the potential to fulfil all the criteria, as they have a hierarchical porous structure similar to that of trabecular bone, they can bond to bone and soft tissue and they release silicon and calcium ions that have been found to up-regulate seven families of genes in osteogenic cells. Their hierarchical structure can be tailored for the required rate of tissue bonding, resorption and delivery of dissolution products. This paper describes how the structure and properties of the scaffolds are being optimized with respect to cell response and that tissue culture techniques must be optimized to enable growth of new bone in vitro .


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2006
Author(s):  
Markus Merk ◽  
Orlando Chirikian ◽  
Christian Adlhart

Recent advancements in tissue engineering and material science have radically improved in vitro culturing platforms to more accurately replicate human tissue. However, the transition to clinical relevance has been slow in part due to the lack of biologically compatible/relevant materials. In the present study, we marry the commonly used two-dimensional (2D) technique of electrospinning and a self-assembly process to construct easily reproducible, highly porous, three-dimensional (3D) nanofiber scaffolds for various tissue engineering applications. Specimens from biologically relevant polymers polycaprolactone (PCL) and gelatin were chemically cross-linked using the naturally occurring cross-linker genipin. Potential cytotoxic effects of the scaffolds were analyzed by culturing human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) up to 23 days. The 3D PCL/gelatin/genipin scaffolds produced here resemble the complex nanofibrous architecture found in naturally occurring extracellular matrix (ECM) and exhibit physiologically relevant mechanical properties as well as excellent cell cytocompatibility. Samples cross-linked with 0.5% genipin demonstrated the highest metabolic activity and proliferation rates for HDF. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images indicated excellent cell adhesion and the characteristic morphological features of fibroblasts in all tested samples. The three-dimensional (3D) PCL/gelatin/genipin scaffolds produced here show great potential for various 3D tissue-engineering applications such as ex vivo cell culturing platforms, wound healing, or tissue replacement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Ali Mirtaghavi ◽  
Jikui Luo ◽  
Rajendran Muthuraj

Current approaches in developing porous 3D scaffolds face various challenges, such as failure of mimicking extracellular matrix (ECM) native building blocks, non-sustainable scaffold fabrication techniques, and lack of functionality. Polysaccharides and proteins are sustainable, inexpensive, biodegradable, and biocompatible, with structural similarities to the ECM. As a result, 3D-structured cellulose (e.g., cellulose nanofibrils, nanocrystals and bacterial nanocellulose)-based aerogels with high porosity and interconnected pores are ideal materials for biomedical applications. Such 3D scaffolds can be prepared using a green, scalable, and cost-effective freeze-drying technique. The physicochemical, mechanical, and biological characteristics of the cellulose can be improved by incorporation of proteins and other polysaccharides. This review will focus on recent developments related to the cellulose-based 3D aerogels prepared by sustainable freeze-drying methods for tissue engineering applications. We will also provide an overview of the scaffold development criteria; parameters that influenced the aerogel production by freeze-drying; and in vitro and in vivo studies of the cellulose-based porous 3D aerogel scaffolds. These efforts could potentially help to expand the role of cellulose-based 3D scaffolds as next-generation biomaterials.


Author(s):  
Eamon J. Sheehy ◽  
Tatiana Vinardell ◽  
Conor T. Buckley ◽  
Daniel J. Kelly

Tissue engineering applications aim to replace or regenerate damaged tissues through a combination of cells, three-dimensional scaffolds, and signaling molecules [1]. The endochondral approach to bone tissue engineering [2], which involves remodeling of an intermittent hypertrophic cartilaginous template, may be superior to the traditional intramembranous approach. Naturally derived hydrogels have been used extensively in tissue engineering applications [3]. Mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) seeded hydrogels may be a particularly powerful tool in scaling-up engineered endochondral bone grafts as the low oxygen conditions that develop within large constructs enhance in vitro chondrogenic differentiation and functional development [4]. A key requirement however, is that the hydrogel must allow for remodeling of the engineered hypertrophic cartilage into bone and also facilitate vascularization of the graft. The first objective of this study was to compare the capacity of different naturally derived hydrogels (alginate, chitosan, and fibrin) to generate in vivo endochondral bone. The secondary objective was to investigate the possibility of engineering a ‘scaled-up’ anatomically accurate distal phalange as a paradigm for whole bone tissue engineering.


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