Responsive Cell–Material Interfaces

Abstract

Major design aspects for novel biomaterials are driven by the desire to mimic more varied and complex properties of a natural cellular environment with man-made materials. The development of stimulus responsive materials makes considerable contributions to the effort to incorporate dynamic and reversible elements into a biomaterial. This is particularly challenging for cell-material interactions that occur at an interface (biointerfaces); however, the design of responsive biointerfaces also presents opportunities in a variety of applications in biomedical research and regenerative medicine. This review will identify the requirements imposed on a responsive biointerface and use recent examples to demonstrate how some of these requirements have been met. Finally, the next steps in the development of more complex biomaterial interfaces, including multiple stimuli-responsive surfaces, surfaces of 3D objects and interactive biointerfaces will be discussed.

Tyramine‐conjugated alginate hydrogels as a platform for bioactive scaffolds

“…Controlling the interface between biomaterials and biological entities such as proteins and cells represents the key for sophisticated cell cultures, implants, and disease models for drug screening. In the last decades, the design of biomaterials was widely investigated to direct cellular behavior . Besides the surface characteristics of the biomaterial such as its wettability, charge, chemistry, and topography, the materials mechanical stability and porosity were defined as crucial parameters for cell–matrix interactions.…”

Deconstructing Immune Microenvironments of Lymphoid Tissues for Reverse Engineering

“…For example, the luminal surface of vessels could be modeled to include adhesion molecules, which would be induced by local action of proinflammatory cytokines; cytokines could be added to activate the adhesion molecules . Stimuli‐responsive biointerfaces allow control of properties and functionality of molecules in a reversible manner using pH, ionic strength, temperature, and electrical potential or light as exogenous stimuli . When using cells, secreted enzymes or biological contributions to pH and ionic changes can also be thought of as naturally occurring stimuli and they are an attractive approach for immune microenvironment reverse engineering considering the copious variety of cytokines secreted for immune modulation.…”

“…When using cells, secreted enzymes or biological contributions to pH and ionic changes can also be thought of as naturally occurring stimuli and they are an attractive approach for immune microenvironment reverse engineering considering the copious variety of cytokines secreted for immune modulation. Dynamic biointerfaces are not merely limited to chemical changes; material topography and stiffness can likewise be manipulated, as with the release of caged or encapsulated soluble cytokines and growth factors. Such control should definitely be taken advantage of, since the technology is not restricted to single stimuli.…”

In situ Enabling Approaches for Tissue Regeneration: Current Challenges and New Developments

“…As our understanding of how the physical and chemical properties of the ECM direct stem cell fate and tissue formation has evolved, we have observed a simultaneous development of advanced biomaterials with the capacity to recapitulate such properties locally at the tissue interface (Stuart et al, 2010;Dhowre et al, 2015). These smart materials can be dynamically altered by chemistry, enzymes, light, and mechanics, among others (Momeni et al, 2017;Miri et al, 2018).…”