Cartilage defects resulting from traumatic injury or degenerative diseases have very limited spontaneous healing ability. Recent progress in tissue engineering and local therapeutic gene delivery systems has led to promising new strategies for successful regeneration of hyaline cartilage. In the present study, tissue engineering and local therapeutic gene delivery systems are combined with the ...

BACKGROUND Artifical nerve scaffold can be used as a promising alternative to autologous nerve grafts to enhance the repair of peripheral nerve defects. However, current nerve scaffolds lack efficient microstructure and neurotrophic support. METHODS Microsphere-Scaffold composite was developed by incorporating chitosan microspheres loaded with nerve growth factor (NGF-CMSs) into collagen-chit...

Many glandular organs are developed by branching morphogenesis, an efficient and ubiquitous process for creating a larger cellular area for metabolic requirement. To regenerate a glandular organ, such as salivary glands, recapitulation of branching processes may be requisite. At present, the roles of biomaterials in regenerative branching have never been thoroughly explored. By culturing the em...

Chitosan scaffolds have been shown to possess biological and mechanical properties suitable for tissue engineering and clinical applications. In the present work, chitosan sponges were evaluated regarding their ability to support cartilage cell proliferation and maturation, which are the first steps in endochondral bone formation. Chitosan sponges were seeded with chondrocytes isolated from chi...

Objective(s): To improve water stability of electrospun chitosan/ Polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofibers, genipin, a biocompatible and nontoxic agent, was used to crosslink chitosan based nanofibers.  Materials and Methods: Different amounts of genipin were added to the chitosan/PEO solutions, chitosan/PEO weight ratio 90/10 in 80 % acetic acid, and the solutions were then electrospun to form nano...

Bone tissue engineering implants with sustained local drug delivery provide an opportunity for better postoperative care for bone tumor patients because these implants offer sustained drug release at the tumor site and reduce systemic side effects. A rapid prototyped macroporous polycaprolactone scaffold was embedded with a porous matrix composed of chitosan, nanoclay, and β-tricalcium phosphat...

The role of heart disease in increasing worldwide death and the limited availability of organs for transplantation have encouraged multiple strategies to fabricate functional and implantable constructs. One of these strategies is to develop a biologically similar heart tissue scaffold, in which two types of fiber and hydrogel are commonly used. Toward this goal, taking advantage of both hydroge...

Cardiac tissue engineering strategies are based on the development of functional models of heart muscle in vitro. Our research is focused on evaluating the feasibility of different tissue engineering platforms to support the formation of heart muscle. Our previous work was focused on developing three-dimensional (3D) models of heart muscle using self-organization strategies and biodegradable hy...

a new natural and environmental friendly wound dressing was introduced for the first time that was prepared by electrospinning method. this new wound dressing has chitosan base, and poly (ethylene oxide) was added as co-spinning agent to improve spinnability of chitosan. moreover, thyme extract as a natural antibacterial additive was introduced in the as electrospun nanofibers scaffold in order...