Title:2D, 3D and 4D Active Compound Delivery in Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
Volume: 21
Issue: 12
Author(s): Nicolas Hanauer, Pierre Luc Latreille, Shaker Alsharif and Xavier Banquy
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Niche engineering, controlled release, scaffolding, hydrogel, fiber.
Abstract: Recent advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine have shown that controlling cells microenvironment
during growth is a key element to the development of successful therapeutic system. To achieve such control,
researchers have first proposed the use of polymeric scaffolds that were able to support cellular growth and, to a certain extent,
favor cell organization and tissue structure. With nowadays availability of a large pool of stem cell lines, such approach
has appeared to be rather limited since it does not offer the fine control of the cell micro-environment in space and
time (4D). Therefore, researchers are currently focusing their efforts on developing strategies that include active compound
delivery systems in order to add a fourth dimension to the design of 3D scaffolds. This review will focus on recent concepts and applications
of 2D and 3D techniques that have been used to control the load and release of active compounds used to promote cell differentiation
and proliferation in or out of a scaffold. We will first present recent advances in the design of 2D polymeric scaffolds and the different
techniques that have been used to deposit molecular cues and cells in a controlled fashion. We will continue presenting the recent advances
made in the design of 3D scaffolds based on hydrogels as well as polymeric fibers and we will finish by presenting some of the
research avenues that are still to be explored.
