Design, fabrication and performance of multifunctional scaffolds for regenerating complex human body tissues

Abstract

Tissue engineering may provide solutions to the regeneration of “simple” tissues such as skin. There are now great needs for regenerating complex tissues such as gastrointestinal tracts. For successful tissue regeneration, scaffold-based tissue engineering is still the dominant approach. Scaffolds provide a conducive microenvironment for cells to adhere, proliferate and differentiate, leading to new tissue formation. It is also preferred now that scaffolds can induce stem cell differentiation into target tissue cells. Different nanocomposites, mainly polymer-based composites containing bioactive and biodegradable ceramic nanoparticles for hard tissue regeneration, are investigated as new tissue engineering materials. There are also a variety of scaffold fabrication techniques, e.g., freeze-drying, electrospinning and 3D printing. Multifunctionality is desirable and may be achieved for tissue engineering scaffolds. For regenerating complex tissues such as gastrointestinal tracts which have multilayered structures, through good scaffold design and by using appropriate fabrication techniques together with suitable biodegradable biomaterials, complex multifunctional scaffolds can be constructed. This lecture presents our research on multicomponent and multifunctional tissue engineering scaffolds and discusses issues in scaffold design and fabrication.