Engineering of Extracellular Matrix‐Like Biomaterials at Nano‐ and Macroscale toward Fabrication of Hierarchical Scaffolds for Bone Tissue Engineering

Abstract

The increasing rate of musculoskeletal pathologies has compelled the development of improved and novel treatment strategies in order to address unmet clinical needs. Tissue engineering approaches comprising the use of scaffolds for bone regeneration have been showing to be a promising alternative to conventional bone repair/substitution approaches. In particular, hierarchical scaffolds as methods of structural support and osteogenic differentiation promoters are among the most used tools in bone tissue engineering (BTE). In this reasoning, hierarchical scaffolds have sparked the field, striving toward mimicking the natural bone tissue in both, its complex 3D structure and composition. A recent and promising trend has been the merging of nanotechnology and tissue engineering concepts. As such the incorporation of nanoparticles and nanocomposites into micro‐ or macroscaffold systems can result in an improvement of scaffolds’ biofunctionality at different levels. These tools are versatile in nature and can be used for multiple purposes such as drug delivery, thermal conductors, and mechanical reinforcement. Taking into consideration multidisciplinary approaches, several strategies have been pursued. The recent reports dealing with the approaches pursued in the hierarchical scaffolds production and enhancement, ranging from the nanoscale to the macroscale, are overviewed herein.

Towards Stem Cell Therapy for Critical-Sized Segmental Bone Defects: Current Trends and Challenges on the Path to Clinical Translation

“…Collagen, as a major component of the ECM in bone tissues, plays a crucial role in bone tissue engineering. Its use in scaffolds is widespread due to its biomimetic properties and ability to support cell adhesion, growth, and differentiation [ 101 ]. The functionality of stem cells is highly dependent on integrin involvement through cell–cell or cell–extracellular matrix (ECM) interactions; thus, it is important to understand the mechanism of integrin binding and cell interaction in the biomaterials.…”

The state‐of‐art review of ultra‐precision machining using text mining: Identification of main themes and recommendations for the future direction

“…Interacted theme members Content example 1 and 4 Spindle/motion/vibration and measurement/error Effects of the motion from spindle vibration on machined quality of UPM (Sun et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018) 2 and 3 Optical/component and polishing/ large Ultra-precision polishing on large scale workpiece (Fan et al, 2021) 2 and small themes Micro and structure/nano • Freeform surface on optical material surfaces (Lyu et al, 2022) • Fabrication of microstructural surface with hierarchical micro/nano structures by UPM (Lemos et al, 2022) 3 and small themes Polishing and efficiency/ performance/analysis Efficiency and performance using ultra-precision polishing technology (Ke et al, 2022;Tan et al, 2022) drive device, have improved UPM machining accuracy and flexibility in fabricating micro-structures (Zhang et al, 2019).…”

It Takes Two to Tango: Controlling Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Response via Substrate Stiffness and Surface Topography

“…The rationale of using in vitro (and in vivo) nano/microarchitectural features to control cell fate (and neotissue growth) is based on the fact that cells naturally reside within a multifaceted, in this case architecturally speaking, ECM milieu. [139,140] Over the years, methods like nano/microimprinting lithography, [141][142][143] reactive ion etching, [144,145] multibeam laser, [146][147][148] dry etching, [149] hot embossing, [150,151] replica molding, [152] UV molding, [153] femtosecond laser irradiation, [154] and laser ablation [145] have been utilized to develop materials with even nanofeature fidelity that very closely imitate ECM supramolecular assemblies. Such technologies have allowed for the development of substrates with topographical features (e.g., grooves/ridges, pillars, wells) capable of eliciting feature (e.g., pattern [155] and feature size [156] ) dependent cell response (Table 2).…”