Textile scaffolds in tissue engineering

Healthcare and hygiene textiles Extracorporeal devices Bedding, protective clothing, surgical gowns, clothes, wipes, etc. Artificial kidney, artificial liver, artificial lung, bioreactors, etc. 

Surgical textiles Non-implantable textiles Implantable textiles Wound dressings, plaster casts, bandages, external fracture fixation systems, etc. Sutures, vascular grafts, ligament and tendon prostheses, bone plates, heart valves, hernia patches, joint replacements, artificial skin, etc. 

Frame work for crowns or fixed partial dentures 

Synthetic skin Abdominal wall patch Vascular graft 

Dural substitute Bone graft Trachea prosthesis 

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Ramakrishna S., Textile scaffolds in tissue engineering in Tao X. (ed.) Smart Fibres, Fabrics and Clothing, Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge, 2001,299. 

A large number of fibers has been used or developed for various applications such as wound dressing materials, sutures, scaffolds in tissue engineering, functional textile, and air filters. Over the past several years, the biomedical application interests for chitin and chitosan have drawn much attention. This is due to the fact that chitin and chitosan are biodegradable, biocompatible, and non-toxic. 

Aibibu, D., Houis, S., Harwoko, M. S., Gries, T. (2010). Textile scaffolds for tissue engineering-near future or just vision. In S. C. Anand, J. F. Kennedy, M. Miraftab, S. Rajendran (Eds.), Medical and healthcare textiles (pp. 353—356). Cambridge Wood-head Publishing Limited. 

The fourth part, embracing the last three chapters, is focused on bioapplications. Chapter 15 outlines various bioprocesses for smart textiles and clothing, and Chapter 16 concentrates on tailor-made intelligent polymers for biomedical applications. Chapter 17 describes the applications of scaffolds in tissue engineering, where various textile structures are used for cells to grow. 

Scaffolds play a central role in tissue engineering. Textile structures are particularly attractive to tissue engineering because of their ability to tailor a broad spectrum of scaffolds with a wide range of properties. Preliminary studies clearly demonstrate the suitability of textile scaffolds for tissue engineering purposes. There is no universal scaffold that meets the requirements of the various tissues of the human body. Further systematic study is necessary to design an optimal scaffold for each tissue application. 

Mayer J, Karamuk E, Bruinink A, Wintermantel E and Ramakrishna S, Textile scaffolding for tissue engineering influence of structural deformation in the microscopic range , Proc. Topical Conference Int. Conf. Biomaterials, Carriers for Drug Delivery, and Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering, Los Angeles, USA, 1997, 96-8. 

As an example for textiles in medicine, projects using PVDF as scaffold for tissue engineering as well as for implants are explained further. 

These examples are some of the infinite possibihties of fibrous scaffold used in tissue engineering. Remember, however, that scaling and orientation of libers are active parameters of implantable stractures and have to be determined in light of each application s specific requirements to improve biointegralion. Textile technologies could provide controllable structures that lead to optimum cell culture conditions. 

In contrast, spider silk is devoid of sericin and hence does not evoke the same biological or immunological reactions. Thus, spider silk has better biocompatibility and is a preferred biomaterial for suture applications. It has also been studied as a material for regenerative nerve conduits to promote peripheral nerve regeneration [33]. Silk s unique mechanical properties coupled with its ability to be fabricated into different textile structures enable its use in tissue engineering scaffolds that mimic the mechanical properties of native tissues. For example, silk filaments have been converted into a braided rope stracture that acts as a scaffold for the regeneration of anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) [34]. 

In terms of the textile structure used as scaffolds for tissue engineering, it is desirable to produce textile materials that do not alter their mechanical properties when... 

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