Current approaches and future perspectives on strategies for the development of personalized tissue engineering therapies

Abstract

Personalized tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM) therapies propose patientoriented effective solutions, considering individual needs. Cell-based therapies, for example, may benefit from cell sources that enable easier autologous setups or from recent developments on IPS cells technologies towards effective personalized therapeutics. Furthermore, the customization of scaffold materials to perfectly fit a patient's tissue defect through rapid prototyping technologies, also known as 3D printing, is now a reality. Nevertheless, the timing to expand cells or to obtain functional in vitro tissue substitutes prior to implantation prevents advancements towards routine use upon patient´s needs. Thus, personalized therapies also anticipate the importance of creating off-the-shelf solutions to enable immediately available tissue engineered products. This paper reviews the main recent developments and future challenges to enable personalized TERM approaches and to bring these technologies closer to clinical applications.

Micromechanical study of the load transfer in a polycaprolactone–collagen hybrid scaffold when subjected to unconfined and confined compression

“… 2016 ; Neves et al. 2016 ). Although various optimization methods have been proposed to identify the most appropriate scaffold geometry or mechanical properties, most studies rely on a trial-and-error approach (Dias et al.…”

Advanced hydrogels for treatment of diabetes

“…Lastly, some hydrogels are used as 3D niches to support the culture of a myriad of mature cells and to promote the generation of insulin‐producing cells from several progenitor cells. For this application, aspects related to cytocompatibility and mechanical stability are still in laboratory evaluation stages (Jabbari et al, ; Neves et al, ), although a few hydrogel‐based products are currently commercially available or under clinical evaluation. In this review, the state of the art in advanced hydrogels for improving the treatment of hyperglycemia and DMRC will be concisely discussed, bringing insights on the future of these materials as medical products for treatment of diabetes.…”

“…Despite progress in medicine, there is still no cure for hyperglycemia and DM-related conditions (DMRC), such as cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and diabetic foot ulcer (DFU), among others. In recent years, the advent of biomaterials has broadened the possibility for improvement upon the current therapeutic strategies focused on treating diabetes (Neves, Rodrigues, Reis, & Gomes, 2016). Hydrogels are a class of biomaterials that follow the building-up approach in which water-soluble monomers form hierarchical structures to give rise to more complex polymeric structures.…”

“…Lastly, some hydrogels are used as 3D niches to support the culture of a myriad of mature cells and to promote the generation of insulin-producing cells from several progenitor cells. For this application, aspects related to cytocompatibility and mechanical stability are still in laboratory evaluation stages (Jabbari et al, 2016;Neves et al, 2016), although a few hydrogel-based products are currently commercially available or under clinical evaluation.…”

Laser-Etched Designs for Molding Hydrogel-Based Engineered Tissues

“…I n the last decade, there has been an increasing demand for the development of large organ-, patient-, or sitespecific engineered tissues and scaffolds, 1 with the goal of customized, and thus personalized, tissue engineering therapy. Natural and synthetic hydrogels have been explored as tissue scaffolds for decades due to their biocompatibility, high permeability to oxygen and nutrients, and ability to gel under mild chemical conditions for immobilizing living cells.…”