Bioconductive 3D nano-composite constructs with tunable elasticity to initiate stem cell growth and induce bone mineralization

The Influence of the Surface Topographical Cues of Biomaterials on Nerve Cells in Peripheral Nerve Regeneration: A Review

The surface topographies of artificial implants including surface roughness, surface groove size and orientation, and surface pore size and distribution have a great influence on the adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation of nerve cells in the nerve regeneration process. Optimizing the surface topographies of biomaterials can be a key strategy for achieving excellent cell performance in various applications such as nerve tissue engineering. In this review, we offer a comprehensive summary of the surface topographies of nerve implants and their effects on nerve cell behavior. This review also emphasizes the latest work progress of the layered structure of the natural extracellular matrix that can be imitated by the material surface topology. Finally, the future development of surface topographies on nerve regeneration was prospectively remarked.

Importance of crosslinking strategies in designing smart biomaterials for bone tissue engineering: A systematic review

Biomaterials are of significant importance in biomedical applications as these biological macromolecules have moderately replaced classical tissue grafting techniques owing to its beneficial properties. Despite of its favourable advantages, poor mechanical and degradative properties of biomaterials are of great concern. To this regard, crosslinkers have emerged as a smart and promising tool to augment the biological functionality of biopolymers. Different crosslinkers have been extensively used in past decades to develop bone substitutes, but the implications of toxic response and adverse reactions are truly precarious after implantation. Traditional crosslinker like glutaraldehyde has been widely used in numerous bio-implants but the potential toxicity is largely being debated with many disproving views. As alternative, green chemicals, enzymatic and non-enzymatic chemicals, bi-functional epoxies, zero-length crosslinkers and physical crosslinkers have been introduced to achieve the desired properties of a bone substitute. In this review, systematic literature search was performed on PubMed database to identify the most commonly used crosslinkers for developing promising bone like materials. The relevant articles were identified, analysed and reviewed in this paper giving due importance to different crosslinking methodologies and comparing their effectiveness and efficacy in regard to material composition, scaffold production, crosslinker dosage, toxicity and immunogenicity. This review summarizes the recent developments in crosslinking mechanism with an emphasis placed on their ability to link proteins through bonding reactions. Finally, this study also covers the convergent and divergent methodologies of crosslinking strategies also giving special importance in retrieving the current limitations and future opportunities of crosslinking modalities in bone tissue engineering.

Comparative bone regeneration study of hardystonite and hydroxyapatite as filler in critical-sized defect of rat calvaria

Bone grafts made from nanofibrous polycaprolactone loaded with bone-mimicking ceramic hydroxyapatite or hardystonite showed efficient bone healing in an in vivo rat skull defect model.