Oxygen
carriers are attracting extensive interest in biomedical
research and clinical applications such as wound healing, alternative
blood transfusion, and acute trauma treatment. Great efforts have
been devoted to the generation of oxygen carriers with special functions
and properties to meet specific demands. Here, we present black phosphorus
(BP)-loaded separable responsive microneedles (MNs) with oxygen carrying
and controllable oxygen delivering ability for wound healing. Such
MNs are composed of a polyvinyl acetate (PVA) backing layer and gelatin
methacryloyl (GelMA) tips that are loaded with BP quantum dots (BP
QDs) and hemoglobin (Hb). Taking advantage of the fast dissolvability
of PVA, the backing layer soon disappears after the MNs are applied
to skin and the noncytotoxic, biocompatible GelMA tips are left inside
the skin. Due to the excellent photothermal effect of BP QDs and the
reversible oxygen binding property of Hb, the local temperature of
the skin will increase after near-infrared ray irradiation, resulting
in the responsive oxygen release. Notably, the practical performance
of such MNs has been demonstrated by treating the full-thickness cutaneous
wounds of a type I diabetes rat model, indicating their potential
value in wound healing and other related biomedical fields.
Natural
fiber systems provide inspirations for artificial fiber
spinning and applications. Through a long process of trial and error,
great progress has been made in recent years. The natural fiber itself,
especially silks, and the formation mechanism are better understood,
and some of the essential factors are implemented in artificial spinning
methods, benefiting from advanced manufacturing technologies. In addition,
fiber-based materials produced via bioinspired spinning
methods find an increasingly wide range of biomedical, optoelectronic,
and environmental engineering applications. This paper reviews recent
developments in the spinning and application of bioinspired fiber
systems, introduces natural fiber and spinning processes and artificial
spinning methods, and discusses applications of artificial fiber materials.
Views on remaining challenges and the perspective on future trends
are also proposed.
Drug
development is a long process whose main content includes
drug synthesis, drug delivery, and drug evaluation. Compared with
conventional drug development procedures, microfluidics has emerged
as a revolutionary technology in that it offers a miniaturized and
highly controllable environment for bio(chemical) reactions to take
place. It is also compatible with analytical strategies to implement
integrated and high-throughput screening and evaluations. In this
review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the entire microfluidics-based
drug development system, from drug synthesis to drug evaluation. The
challenges in the current status and the prospects for future development
are also discussed. We believe that this review will promote communications
throughout diversified scientific and engineering communities that
will continue contributing to this burgeoning field.
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