Regenerative-Active Biomaterials and Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Research in biomaterials has reached a pivotal moment. Until a decade ago, studies in biomaterials focused on the application of implantable medical devices that met the biomechanical requirements of the surrounding healthy and functionally active tissue remaining around the excised lesion. At the core of this research, prostheses were applied primarily for the total replacement of joints, hips, and knees which had been functionally impaired due to osteoarthritis, intraocular lenses for patients with cataracts, or grafts for bypass atherosclerotic arteries.

Now, in the area of tissue engineering within the discipline of regenerative medicine, research strategies have become more complex. Considering the difficulties originating from traditional implants, new strategies must follow the regenerative principles proceeding in the tissues of the body. One solution is to incorporate human stem cells, embedded into a biocompatible hydrogel, and provide them with a physiological environment in which they can proliferate and differentiate. The alternative is to fabricate a biomaterial that attracts stem cells, undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells, and allow them to migrate into such a material. Such a biomaterial should offer a suitable “niche” and provide both morphogenetic peptides as well as metabolic energy to the cells. Ideally, both arms must/should be implemented. For the repair of bone and cartilage tissues in particular, the physiological biomaterials are poor in cells—and if cells are present, they are present in a scattered way within the scaffold. As in the physiological tissues, cells attach to the extracellular fibrous scaffold with their membrane receptors. For migration, differentiation, and proliferation, cells are dependent on nutrients which reach the cells in a diffusible form or are provided as precursors of an energy source from which the metabolic energy, intracellular/mitochondrial ATP, or extracellular ATP is generated. This new paradigm will result in the development of biomaterials with unequivocal properties, being mechanically stable and simultaneously energy-providing and regeneratively active. The path towards this goal will undoubtedly present many obstacles, and several stages will be involved, but the resulting biomaterials will be sustainable and of the desired quality. Imitation of the principles of nature is also a key objective in regenerative medicine.

This Special Issue will offer insights into the current achievements in the fields of intelligent and responsive hydrogels, the encapsulation of stem cells, stem cell constructs, the design of biocompatible and energy delivery scaffolds as well as smart polymers, including modulating biofilm formation and being active against bacteria and viruses, as examples. In the process of fulfilling these goals, advice and strategies will be collected from studies with biomimetic and bionic smart scaffolds, allowing an understanding of the comprehension of nature, which solved in perfect and likewise ingenious pathways the process of regeneration in metazoan organisms. This Special Issue will provide an interactive platform involving new data for better controlled smartness and for the successful translation of in vitro smartness properties to effective in vivo tissue repair and regeneration.

Prof. Dr. Xiaohong Wang
Prof. Dr. Heinz C. Schröder
Prof. Dr. Werner E. G. Müller
Guest Editors

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• biomaterial
• scaffold
• stem cell
• smart polymer
• bone
• cartilage
• wound healing
• hydrogel
• regenerative medicine
• tissue engineering