3D Bioprinting and Nanotechnology in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine

Lijie Grace Zhang,Kam Leong,John P. Fisher

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780128006641
• Topic: Biowissenschaften
• Subtopic: Biotechnologie

3D Bioprinting and Nanotechnology in Tissue Engineering provides an in depth introduction to these two technologies and their industrial applications. Stem cells in tissue regeneration are covered, along with nanobiomaterials. Commercialization, legal and regulatory considerations are also discussed in order to help you translate nanotechnology and 3D printing-based products to the marketplace and the clinic. Dr. Zhang's and Dr. Fishers' team of expert contributors have pooled their expertise in order to provide a summary of the suitability, sustainability and limitations of each technique for each specific application. The increasing availability and decreasing costs of nanotechnologies and 3D printing technologies are driving their use to meet medical needs, and this book provides an overview of these technologies and their integration. It shows how nanotechnology can increase the clinical efficiency of prosthesis or artificial tissues made by bioprinting or biofabrication. Students and professionals will receive a balanced assessment of relevant technology with theoretical foundation, while still learning about the newest printing techniques.

• Includes clinical applications, regulatory hurdles, and risk-benefit analysis of each technology.
• This book will assist you in selecting the best materials and identifying the right parameters for printing, plus incorporate cells and biologically active agents into a printed structure
• Learn the advantages of integrating 3D printing and nanotechnology in order to improve the safety of your nano-scale materials for biomedical applications

Chapter 1

Nanotechnology: A Toolkit for Cell Behavior

Christopher O’Brien¹

Benjamin Holmes¹

Lijie Grace Zhang^1,2
1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
² Department of Medicine, The George Washington University, Washington DC, USA

Abstract

Tissue engineering seeks to effectively manipulate cellular populations to improve the function of damaged or diseased tissues and organs. Many techniques can affect cell behavior; however, in order to maintain desirable function, scientists and engineers design solutions that are as biomimetic as possible. True biomimeticity is very challenging without the incorporation of nanotechnology. Since cells in human tissues are surrounded by a 3D hierarchical tissue extracellular matrix containing numerous nano components, a revolutionary change in tissue engineering is to explore biomimetic nanobiomaterials and advanced 3D nano/microfabrication techniques for creating novel tissue constructs and regulating cell behavior. This chapter will provide an overview of recent nanotechnology in tissue engineering applications. We will put special emphasis on integrating cutting-edge 3D nano/microfabrication techniques with nanobiomaterials for complex tissue and organ regeneration.

Keywords

Nanotechnology

nanobiomaterials

nanofabrication

tissue regeneration

cells

scaffold

1.1. Introduction

Scientists and researchers have been fascinated with the details of life at small scales ever since Robert Hooke saw the evidence of small structures in cork that he coined cells. This spurred the creation of the compound microscope and the quest of the late 1600s to discover how life operates beneath our very own eyes. That quest has continued even to this day as scientists look for smaller and smaller constituents that contribute to life as we know it; from proteins to functional groups, everything has an important role. The collective scientific gaze looked for finer and finer components to life, and for a short while now has focused on the prevalence of the nano world.

One hundred to one thousand times smaller than Hooke’s observed cork cells, researchers have determined that materials and features of less than 100 nm in at least one dimension can have profound effects on the behavior of cells and further tissue and organ regeneration (Zhang and Webster, 2009). When examining nature, using nanotechnology for tissue regeneration becomes obvious. In fact, human cells create and continually interact directly with their natural nanostructured environment, called extracellular matrix (ECM). This momentous discovery spurred many researchers to attempt to more effectively mimic natural biology by creating novel nanobiomaterials and designing...