Articles

Cell therapy using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived neurons is considered a promising approach to regenerate the injured spinal cord (SC). However, the scar formed at the chronic phase is not a permissive microenvironment for cell or biomaterial engraftment or for tissue assembly. Engineering of a functional human neuronal network is now reported by mimicking the embryonic development of the SC in a 3D dynamic biomaterial-based microenvironment.

Hydrogels are widely used materials for cardiac tissue engineering. However, once the cells are encapsulated within hydrogels, mass transfer to the core of the engineered tissue is limited, and cell viability is compromised.

Bacterial type IV pili (T4P) are polymeric protein nanofibers that have diverse biological roles.

Over the years, different types of scaffolds have been used for the regeneration of complex organs, such as the infarcted heart, injured spinal cord, and the neurodegenerative brain.

Replacement of the damaged scar tissue created by a myocardial infarction is the goal of cardiac tissue engineering.

Cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death in industrialized nations. To date, heart transplantation is the only treatment for patients with end-stage heart failure. Since the number of cardiac donors is limited, there is a need to develop new approaches to regenerate the infarcted heart.
Cardiac tissue engineering provides an alternative approach by integrating cardiac cells and 3D biomaterials.

The capability to on-line sense tissue function, provide stimulation to control contractility and efficiently release drugs within an engineered tissue microenvironment may enhance tissue assembly and improve the therapeutic outcome of implanted engineered tissues.

The success of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) transplantation is limited due to the low number of HSCs received from donors. In vivo, HSCs reside within a specialized niche inside the 3D porous spongy bone

Fabricating three-dimensional, biocompatible microenvironments to support functional tissue assembly remains a key challenge in cardiac tissue engineering. We hypothesized that since the omentum can be removed from patients by minimally invasive procedures, the obtained underlying matrices can be manipulated to serve as autologous scaffolds for cardiac patches.

Cardiovascular diseases remain the number one killer in Western countries. Despite recent advances and promising results in cardiac cell-based therapy, one of the remaining challenges is poor cell retention in the desired site.

Omentum-based matrices fabricated by decellularization have the potential to serve as autologous scaffolds for tissue engineering. Transplantation of such scaffolds prepared from the patient’s own biomaterial may reduce the immunogenic response after transplantation.