Nano-structured Scaffolds for Regenerative Engineering

摘要

Regenerative Engineering has been defined as “the integration of tissue engineeringwith advanced materials science, stem cell science and developmental biology toward theregeneration of complex tissues, organs, or organ systems”. It has elements of tissueengineering, regenerative medicine, and morphogenesis but is distinct from theseindividual disciplines in that regenerative engineering focuses specifically on theintegration and subsequent response of stem cells to biomaterials. Of particular interest toregenerative engineering is the regeneration of the interface between different tissuetypes using integrated graft systems. Further, regenerative engineering seeks to developand evaluate biomaterials with the specific focus of stem cell interaction and response. Inspecific, the interaction of cells with nanotopography has proven to be an importantsignaling modality in controlling cellular processes. Integrating nanotopographical cues isespecially important in engineering complex tissues that have multiple cell types andrequire precisely defined cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions in a three-dimensionalenvironment. Thus in a regenerative engineering approach, nanoscale materials/scaffoldsplay a paramount role in controlling cell fate and the consequent regenerative capacity.Nanotechnology has enabled to fabricate nanostructured scaffolds mimicking the naturalextracellular matrix (ECM). For example, biodegradable polymers such as polyesters andpolyphosphazenes, polymer blends and composites can be electrospun into nanofibers,which provide high surface area for cell attachment, growth, and differentiation. Thework of designing and developing nano-structured scaffolds for regeneration of varioustissues such as skin, bone, ligament, tendon, cartilage, blood vessel, and nerve, will bediscussed. Given the progress in each of these areas, the challenge and preliminarystrategies to integrate these individual tissues into one complex organ throughregenerative engineering-based integrated graft systems, will also be discussed.