Material strategies for creating artificial cell-instructive niches.
There has been a tremendous growth in the use of biomaterials serving as cellular scaffolds for tissue engineering applications. Recently, advanced material strategies have been developed to incorporate structural, mechanical, and biochemical signals that can interact with the cell and the in vivo environment in a biologically specific manner. In this article, strategies such as the use of composite materials and material processing methods to better mimic the extracellular matrix, integration of mechanical and topographical properties of materials in scaffold design, and incorporation of biochemical cues such as cytokines in tethered, soluble, or time-released forms are presented. Finally, replication of the dynamic forces and biochemical gradients of the in vivo cellular environment through the use of microfluidics is highlighted.
Center for Biomedical Engineering, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Faramarz
F
Edalat
Iris
I
Sheu
Sam
S
Manoucheri
Ali
A
Khademhosseini
D000818:Animals; D058045:Artificial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D060833:Cellular Microenvironment; D016207:Cytokines / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D044085:Microfluidics; D023822:Tissue Engineering; D054457:Tissue Scaffolds / Q000737:chemistry
D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D016207:Cytokines