NANOSTURCTURED BIOMATERIALS FOR TISSUE REGENERATION AND REPAIR
Abstract
Nanostructured materials have been explored in biomedical field especially in
tissue engineering over a past decade. This type of material can be processed into
biomaterial scaffolds; revealed many advantages to be used in human living system such
as restoring, healing, replacing and improving the function of interested tissues or organs.
In this work, nanostructured materials were synthesized as a nanofibrous scaffold or
nanoparticles, which were characterized and tested for their biofunctions in the
regeneration of blood vessels, lung and skin tissues. Firstly, biodegradable polyurethane
nanofibrous scaffolds with dipyramole were electrospun to create a vascular graft, and
results demonstrated that this nanofibrous scaffold matched the native artery mechanical
strength, reduced the platelet deposition, improved blood compatibility, supported
endothelial cell formation and inhibited the proliferation of smooth muscle cells. Next,
biodegradable polylactic-glycolic acid nanoparticles were fabricated and then coated with
porcine lung extracellular matrix to maximize the nanoparticle deposition on the alveolar
epithelial cells. These nanoparticles also show that they were cytocompatible with
alveolar type I epithelial cells and facilitated the cellular retention/uptake. Preliminary
studies of electrospun nanofibrous polyurethane scaffold incorporated with nanoparticles
loaded with anti-microbial peptide and/or antibiotics for wound healing application demonstrated these nanostructured materials could be used to prevent bacterial infection
and suggest their potential in skin wound healing applications. Results from this research
suggest that the biomaterials either in the nanofiber or nanoparticle structures could be
used for regeneration of various tissue organs such as blood vessels and skins, and for
protein (growth factors) or gene therapy (cDNA plasmids) delivery to facilitate lung
regeneration. Hence, the nanostructured biomaterials would have high potential to be
applied for tissue regeneration to manage diseased and damaged tissues/organs for
human healthcare.