Tissue regeneration materials

Merzlyak A, Indrakanti S, Lee SW (2009) Genetically engineered nanofiber-like viruses for tissue regenerating materials. Nano Lett 9(2) 846-852... 

Tissue Regeneration Materials Unit, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 3050044, Japan Email guoping.CHEN nims.go.jp... 

TISSUE REGENERATION MATERIALS UNIT. INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR MATERIALS NANOARCHITECTONICS (MANA), NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS SCIENCE (NIMS),... 

Despite the evidence for the cytotoxicity of CNTs, there are an increasing number of published studies that support the potential development of CNT-based biomaterials for tissue regeneration (e.g., neuronal substrates [143] and orthopedic materials [154—156]), cancer treatment [157], and drug/vaccine delivery systems [158, 159]. Most of these applications will involve the implantation and/or administration of such materials into patients as for any therapeutic or diagnostic agent used, the toxic potential of the CNTs must be evaluated in relation to their potential benefits [160]. For this reason, detailed investigations of the interactions between CNTs/CNT-based implants and various cell types have been carried out [154, 155, 161]. A comprehensive description of such results, however, is beyond the scope of this chapter. Extensive reviews on the biocompatibility of implantable CNT composite materials [21, 143, 162] and of CNT drug-delivery systems [162] are available. 

Summarizing, noncovalent functionalization methods can be used to prepare materials with specific biological properties because they are quick, efficient and clean. In order to increase biocompatibility of carbon nanostructures, these materials now need to be integrated into living systems and to be potentially used as tissue regeneration scaffolds, prostheses or drug deliverers. 

Significant developments have occurred in recent years in the fields of biopolymers and biomaterials. New synthetic materials have been synthesized and tested for a variety of biomedical and related applications from linings for artifical hearts to artifical pancreas devices and from intraocular lenses to drug delivery systems. Of particular interest in the future is the development of intelligent polymers or materials with special functional groups that can be used either for specialty medical applications or as templates or scaffolds for tissue regeneration. 

The use of synthetic polymers in medicine and biotechnology is a subject of wide interest. Polymers are used in replacement blood vessels, heart valves, blood pumps, dialysis membranes, intraocular lenses, tissue regeneration platforms, surgical sutures, and in a variety of targeted, controlled drug delivery devices. Poly(organosiloxanes) have been used for many years as inert prostheses and heart valves. Biomedical materials based on polyphosphazenes are being considered for nearly all the uses mentioned above. 

Microfabrication technique can also be utilized, in conjunction with tissue engineering, to spatially control cell distribution in a cell culture, which can be used to understand the cell shape dynamics, cell division, and cell-cell interactions. This information will be of significant use while engineering new materials for tissue regeneration and to develop biosensors of high sensitivity. 

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