Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering strategies have made remarkable progress in remodeling, replacing, and regenerating damaged cardiovascular tissues. The design of three-dimensional (3D) scaffolds with appropriate biochemical and mechanical characteristics is critical for engineering tissue-engineered replacements. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a dynamic scaffolding structure characterized by tissue-specific biochemical, biophysical, and mechanical properties that modulates cellular behavior and activates highly regulated signaling pathways. In light of technological advancements, biomaterial-based scaffolds have been developed that better mimic physiological ECM properties, provide signaling cues that modulate cellular behavior, and form functional tissues and organs. In this review, we summarize the in vitro, pre-clinical, and clinical research models that have been employed in the design of ECM-based biomaterials for cardiovascular regenerative medicine. We highlight the research advancements in the incorporation of ECM components into biomaterial-based scaffolds, the engineering of increasingly complex structures using biofabrication and spatial patterning techniques, the regulation of ECMs on vascular differentiation and function, and the translation of ECM-based scaffolds for vascular graft applications. Finally, we discuss the challenges, future perspectives, and directions in the design of next-generation ECM-based biomaterials for cardiovascular tissue engineering and clinical translation.
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Development of Biocompatible Functionalized Polyglycidol-based Scaffolds to Influence Cellular Behavior
Synthetic polymers have contributed significantly to the development of advanced scaffolds for load bearing tissue engineering applications. Despite this, there is still a need to create scaffolds that can simultaneously present multiple biophysical and biochemical properties to better mimic native cellular environments. Polyglycidol has been shown to be a biocompatible polyether polyol, that forms different, sometimes complex, polymeric architectures. Furthermore, it has multiple hydroxyl groups that are capable of numerous chemical modifications. However, little is known about the biocompatibility of modified polyglycidols and their resulting 3-D network. The overarching hypothesis for this project is that changes in the mechanical, structural, and compositional cues within a polyglycidol-based network can be tailored to influence cell responses. Therefore, as a crucial first step, we investigated the biocompatibility of functionalized polyglycidols, and the swelling, degradation, and mechanical properties of polyglycidol based hydrogels. Ongoing studies aim to show that a defined subset of biophysical and biochemical cues can be incorporated simultaneously within the polyglycidol hydrogel. Such an advanced scaffold would allow us to study the synergistic effects of various chemical and physical cues on cellular behavior.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2200484
- PAR ID:
- 10511270
- Editor(s):
- Biomedical_Engineering_Society
- Publisher / Repository:
- Biomedical Engineering Society 2023 Annual Meeting Abstracts
- Date Published:
- Edition / Version:
- 2023
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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