Bioartificial materials

A review is given of the authors work in developing new bioinspired materials, called bioartificial materials. The key is to understand the interactions between the synthetic and biological systems and to obtain materials where these interactions are optimized prior to their contact with a living tissue. The work shown in this paper provides encouraging indication for the developments of new biomaterials containing synthetic and natural components with improved performances for new applications. 

One of the first attempts in the realisation of bioartificial matrices, containing as an enzyme as a biological component was carried out in our research group by Cristallini et al. (5). In view of the basic idea of bioartificial materials, the goal of this study was the analysis of interactions and relationship at nanoscale level between a synthetic component and a-amylase enzyme, from chemical and physical points of view. 

First attempts at template polymerisation were carried out in the radical polymerisation of acrylic monomers onto synthetic templates in aqueous environment and the development of efficient monitoring systems for the investigation of template influence on the reaction kinetics of homo- and copolymerisation (24-30). After these studies, attention was devoted to transferring the lesson learned by- studying fully synthetic systems to the preparation of bioartificial materials by polymerising acrylic monomers onto a template of natural origin. 

As discussed previously, blends of PVA and a-amylase were prepared from aqueous solutions of the two polymers, proposed by our group as the first bioartificial materials based on enzyme. 

However, the main goal was to study the behavior and performance of a novel bioartificial material (obtained with an innovative method involving prefreezing and inversion steps) as a suitable matrix for the entrapment of proteins or enzymes in a stable manner. The tests performed (determination of enzyme activity, determination of and V ax kinetic parameters, repeatability test) confirmed both that the enzyme immobilised in the bioartificial polymeric matrix maintained its catalytic activity unchanged and that the catalytic reaction rate was comparable with that of the free a-amylase reaction (used as control). 

In the past decade, the authors group investigated the properties and the potential of new bio-inspired materials, named bioartificial materials , in which... 

M., and belli, L. (1993) Hydrogels of poly(vinyl alcohol) and collagen as new bioartificial materials. Physical and morphological study. J. Mater. Sci. Mater. Med., 4, 538-542. 

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