Innovation: Increasingly high-tech human tissue engineering
29/10/2020
Regenerating severely injured muscle tissues through the combination of the most sophisticated technologies. This is the goal of the new research conducted by ENEA, as part of the project 'SMARTIES' funded by the Lazio Region, in collaboration with three Italian universities (Tor Vergata, Sapienza and Urbino) and two international partners (National University of Singapore and Sechenov First Medical University of Moscow, whose outcomes were published in the online journal ‘open access’ Nanomaterials-MDPI (https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/9/1781).
"The innovation of this study is the combination of three very promising lines of research, namely electrospinning, extracellular matrix and click chemistry - already very innovative in themselves - which allowed us to develop a cutting-edge system for regeneration muscle tissue and, at the same time, sustainable both for the patient's health and for the environment ”, Laura Teodori, ENEA researcher and coordinator of the study, said.
Electrospinning (or electrospinning) is one of the most promising sectors of nanotechnology; thanks to this technique it is possible to produce 'scaffolds', that is 'intelligent' three-dimensional structures in nanofiber, capable of guiding the regeneration of new tissues: completely similar in organization and structure to the 'native' tissue, they release bioactive substances that favor growth, proliferation and differentiation of the cells that will form the new muscle tissue. The advantages This production method offers many advantages: simplicity and cost-effectiveness of the equipment, scalability, possibility of using different combinations of materials (natural and synthetic polymers) and producing a wide variety of micro and nanofibers, different in size and shape, with large surfaces, high permeability and porosity, in order to guarantee cellular interactions. But there is more: its field of application is very versatile and goes beyond the medical sector; in fact, thanks to electrospinning it is possible to 'spin' hi-tech materials to be used in energy saving, iwaste treatment or, as has already happened, to absorb oil spills in the sea.
If until now these particular 'yarns' were used in surgery to promote tissue regeneration, now they have been further processed and transformed into 'bioink', that is, into particular inks that can be processed with the most innovative manufacturing techniques: in addition to electrospinning for scaffold production in tissue engineering, a 3D bio-printer to produce artificial organs is being developed.
"In addition to electrospinning, the other great innovation introduced by our study is the material chosen to produce the nanofibers to build the scaffolds. The non-cellular component of the tissue, the so-called extracellular matrix, has many advantages: first of all it is cell-free, therefore it does not contain the immunogenic components of the native tissue that could cause its rejection, but at the same time it naturally possesses many of the molecules responsible for regenerative processes like cell adhesion, differentiation and alignment ”, Teodori pointed out.
The last item of this innovative research on tissue regeneration is 'click chemistry', a new 'approach' which, by imitating nature, allows to synthesize complex substances simply and rapidly, combining smaller molecules. “In our studio we propose click chemistry to functionalize the scaffold, that is to attach biomolecules on this architecture to increase its efficiency and functionality and successfully stimulate tissue regeneration. But this can only happen through chemical reactions - click chemistry in fact - which are an absolute novelty in tissue engineering, even if it is already used in green chemistry due to its low environmental impact; in fact, it provides simple starting reaction conditions, the use of readily available reagents and non-toxic and easily removable solvents or even no solvents ", the researcher said.
To more information please contact:
Laura Teodori – ENEA, Diagnostics and Metrology Laboratory – laura.teodori@enea.it
https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/9/1781
https://riviste.fupress.net/index.php/subs/article/view/591/356