Progress in the mechanical modulation of cell functions in tissue engineering

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (24) ◽  
pp. 7033-7081
Author(s):  
Kamol Dey ◽  
Elena Roca ◽  
Giorgio Ramorino ◽  
Luciana Sartore

This work provides a comprehensive view on how multiple mechanical cues of the substrate influence fundamental cellular processes, including spreading, proliferation, migration and differentiation, towards 3D tissue constructs.

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1299
Author(s):  
Yi Wu ◽  
Peng Huang ◽  
Xian-Ping Dong

Ca2+ is pivotal intracellular messenger that coordinates multiple cell functions such as fertilization, growth, differentiation, and viability. Intracellular Ca2+ signaling is regulated by both extracellular Ca2+ entry and Ca2+ release from intracellular stores. Apart from working as the cellular recycling center, the lysosome has been increasingly recognized as a significant intracellular Ca2+ store that provides Ca2+ to regulate many cellular processes. The lysosome also talks to other organelles by releasing and taking up Ca2+. In lysosomal Ca2+-dependent processes, autophagy is particularly important, because it has been implicated in many human diseases including cancer. This review will discuss the major components of lysosomal Ca2+ stores and their roles in autophagy and human cancer progression.


Biomaterials ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (25) ◽  
pp. 5773-5781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandana Bhardwaj ◽  
Quynhhoa T. Nguyen ◽  
Albert C. Chen ◽  
David L. Kaplan ◽  
Robert L. Sah ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 234 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhang ◽  
XiaoXin Zhang ◽  
Xuejing Zhang ◽  
Yu Lu ◽  
Lei Li ◽  
...  

MicroRNAs (MiRNAs) play important regulatory roles in many cellular processes. MiR-143 is highly enriched in the mouse ovary, but its roles and underlying mechanisms are not well understood. In the current study, we show that miR-143 is located in granulosa cells of primary, secondary and antral follicles. To explore the specific functions of miR-143, we transfected miR-143 inhibitor into primary cultured granulosa cells to study the loss of function of miR-143 and the results showed that miR-143 silencing significantly increased estradiol production and steroidogenesis-related gene expression. Moreover, our in vivo and in vitro studies showed that follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) significantly decreased miR-143 expression. This function of miR-143 is accomplished by its binding to the 3’-UTR of KRAS mRNA. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that miR-143 acts as a negative regulating molecule mediating the signaling pathway of FSH and affecting estradiol production by targeting KRAS. MiR-143 also negatively acts in regulating granulosa cells proliferation and cell cycle-related genes expression. These findings indicate that miR-143 plays vital roles in FSH-induced estradiol production and granulosa cell proliferation, providing a novel mechanism that involves miRNA in regulating granulosa cell functions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 318 ◽  
pp. 01045
Author(s):  
Gokhan Ates

In tissue engineering, three-dimensional functional scaffolds with tailored biological properties are needed to be able to mimic the hierarchical structure of biological tissues. Recent developments in additive biomanufacturing allow to extrude multiple materials enabling the fabrication of more sophisticated tissue constructs. These multi-material biomanufacturing systems comprise multiple printing heads through which individual materials are sequentially printed. Nevertheless, as more printing heads are added the fabrication process significantly decreases, since it requires mechanical switching among the physically separated printheads to enable printing multiple materials. In addition, this approach is not able to create biomimetic tissue constructs with property gradients. To address these limitations, this paper presents a novel static mixing extrusion printing head to enable the fabrication of multi-material, functionally graded structures using a single nozzle. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to numerically analyze the influence of Reynolds number on the flow pattern of biomaterials and mixing efficiency considering different miscible materials.


2010 ◽  
pp. 323-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
B Ye

Intracellular free Ca(2+) is one of important biological signals regulating a number of cell functions. It has been discussed widely and extensively in several cell types during the past two decades. Attention has been paid to the Ca2+ transportation in mesenchymal stem cells in recent years as mesenchymal stem cells have gained considerable interest due to their potential for cell replacement therapy and tissue engineering. In this paper, roles of intracellular Ca(2+) oscillations and its transporters in mesenchymal stem cells have been reviewed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shizuka Yamada ◽  
Kohei Yamamoto ◽  
Takeshi Ikeda ◽  
Kajiro Yanagiguchi ◽  
Yoshihiko Hayashi

Cells, growth factors, and scaffold are the crucial factors for tissue engineering. Recently, scaffolds consisting of natural polymers, such as collagen and gelatin, bioabsorbable synthetic polymers, such as polylactic acid and polyglycolic acid, and inorganic materials, such as hydroxyapatite, as well as composite materials have been rapidly developed. In particular, collagen is the most promising material for tissue engineering due to its biocompatibility and biodegradability. Collagen contains specific cell adhesion domains, including the arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) motif. After the integrin receptor on the cell surface binds to the RGD motif on the collagen molecule, cell adhesion is actively induced. This interaction contributes to the promotion of cell growth and differentiation and the regulation of various cell functions. However, it is difficult to use a pure collagen scaffold as a tissue engineering material due to its low mechanical strength. In order to make up for this disadvantage, collagen scaffolds are often modified using a cross-linker, such as gamma irradiation and carbodiimide. Taking into account the possibility of zoonosis, a variety of recent reports have been documented using fish collagen scaffolds. We herein review the potency of fish collagen scaffolds as well as associated problems to be addressed for use in regenerative medicine.


2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 490-498 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. De Maria ◽  
L. Grassi ◽  
F. Vozzi ◽  
A. Ahluwalia ◽  
G. Vozzi

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a novel micro-ablation system to realise micrometric and well-defined hydrogel structures. To engineer a tissue it is necessary to evaluate several aspects, such as cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions, its micro-architecture and mechanical stimuli that act on it. For this reason, it is important to fabricate a substrate which presents a microtopology similar to natural tissue and has chemical and mechanical properties able to promote cell functions. In this paper, well-defined hydrogel structures embedding cells were microfabricated using a purposely developed technique, micro-laser ablation, based on a thulium laser. Its working parameters (laser power emission, stepper motor velocity) were optimised to produce shaded “serpentine” pattern on a hydrogel film. Design/methodology/approach – In this study, initially, swelling/contraction tests on agarose and alginate hydrogel in different solutions of main components of cell culture medium were performed and were compared with the MECpH model. This comparison matched with good approximation experimental measurements. Once known how hydrogel changed its topology, microstructures with a well-defined topology were realised using a purposely developed micro-laser ablation system design. S5Y5 neuroblastoma cell lines were embedded in hydrogel matrix and the whole structure was ablated with a laser microfabrication system. The cells did not show damages due to mechanical stress present in the hydrogel matrix and to thermal increase induced by the laser beam. Findings – The hydrogel structure is able to reproduce extracellular matrix. Initially, the hydrogel swelling/contraction in different solutions, containing the main components of the most common cell culture media, was analysed. This analysis is important to evaluate if cell culture environment could alter microtopology of realised structures. Then, the same topology was realised on hydrogel film embedding neuronal cells and the cells did not show damages due to mechanical stress present in the hydrogel matrix and to thermal increase induced by the laser beam. The interesting obtained results could be useful to realise well-defined microfabricated hydrogel structures embedding cells to guide tissue formation Originality/value – The originality of this paper is the design and realisation of a 3D microfabrication system able to microfabricate hydrogel matrix embedding cells without inducing cell damage. The ease of use of this system and its potential modularity render this system a novel potential device for application in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine area.


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 592-598
Author(s):  
Brian J. O’Grady ◽  
Jason X. Wang ◽  
Shannon L. Faley ◽  
Daniel A. Balikov ◽  
Ethan S. Lippmann ◽  
...  

The fabrication of engineered vascularized tissues and organs requiring sustained, controlled perfusion has been facilitated by the development of several pump systems. Currently, researchers in the field of tissue engineering require the use of pump systems that are in general large, expensive, and generically designed. Overall, these pumps often fail to meet the unique demands of perfusing clinically useful tissue constructs. Here, we describe a pumping platform that overcomes these limitations and enables scalable perfusion of large, three-dimensional hydrogels. We demonstrate the ability to perfuse multiple separate channels inside hydrogel slabs using a preprogrammed schedule that dictates pumping speed and time. The use of this pump system to perfuse channels in large-scale engineered tissue scaffolds sustained cell viability over several weeks.


Author(s):  
Karen Chang Yan ◽  
Pamela Hitscherich ◽  
James Ferrie

Tissue engineering is a promising aspect of regenerative medicine that is aimed at constructing functional tissues and organs. While progresses in tissue engineering have led successful clinic applications, challenges remain for more complex tissues/organs that require concerted efforts from multiple types of cells. One of the key issues in building replacements for complex tissues/organs is to mimic the organ’s complex natural organization using a mixture of engineered materials and living cells [1]. Electrospinning has shown promise as a technique to create the microenvironment necessary for cell growth and proliferation for tissue engineering applications[2–4], while multiple fabrication methods have been developed to manipulate live cells(e.g. cell printing) [5–7]. To this end, a system integrating polymer electrospinning technique and pressure-driven cell deposition method is currently under development for forming hybrid tissue constructs with living cells and polymers. This study focuses on examining morphology of electrospun fibers as function of processing parameters including working distance and solution flow rate.


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