Living Scaffolds (Specialized and Unspecialized) for Regenerative and Therapeutic Medicine

Abstract

The physical sciences have increasingly demonstrated a significant influence on the life sciences. Engineering in particular has shown its input through the development of novel medical devices and processes having significance to the biomedical field. This review introduces and discusses several fiber generation protocols, which have recently undergone development and exploration for directly handling living cells from which continuous cell-bearing or living threads to scaffolds and membranes have been fabricated. In doing so these protocols have not only demonstrated their versatility but also opened several unique possibilities for the use of these scaffolds in a plethora of biological and medical applications. In particular, these living fibrous structural units could be explored for regeneration purposes, e.g., from accelerated wound healing to combating a wide range of pathologies when coupled with gene therapy. Thus, "living entities" such as these scaffolds could be most useful in surgery/medicine, including its exploration with stem cells for the preparation of unspecialized living scaffolds and membranes.

Bio-electrosprays and Aerodynamically Assisted Bio-jets, Flow Cytometry Concepts for Interrogating Living Cells and Whole Organisms

“…These cell scaffolding methodologies are now referred to as cell electrospinning (33, 34) and aerodynamically assisted bio-threading (35, 36). Thus both these scaffolding methodologies are currently undergoing vigorous in vivo model studies for developing into novel tissue engineering and regenerative biology/medicinal strategies(37). Interestingly although, bio-electrosprays demonstrated no harm brought on the post-treated cells and organisms, we noted that achieving jet stability/continuity and jetting of single cells/organisms at any given time was difficult to achieve.…”

Modeling Electrospinning of Nanofibers

“…Such fibers find applications in a variety of areas, including wound dressing [4], drug or gene delivery vehicles [19], biosensors [16], fuel cell membranes and electronics [15]. Recently electrospinning has been revitalized and successfully applied to the production of nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue-engineering processes [2], which constitute one of its most promising application.…”

Microtechnologies in the Fabrication of Fibers for Tissue Engineering

“…Prepolymers can be injected manually, 13,14 gravitationally, 15 using a syringe pump, 16,17 or using pressurized air. [18][19][20] To achieve chemically and mechanically stable fibers, the pre-polymer and the final polymer should be insoluble in the coagulation solution. 16 Fibers fabricated by this method can be deposited randomly or in a predefined pattern in the coagulation bath to form a porous scaffold or can be collected on a motorized spool and assembled in a consequent process.…”