The objectives of this work are the development of the processes, materials, and tooling to directly “3-D print” living, pre-seeded, patient-specific implants of spatially heterogeneous compositions. The research presented herein attempts to overcome some of the challenges to scaffolding, such as the difficulty of producing spatially heterogeneous implants that require varied seeding densities ...

Mechanotransduction is of fundamental importance in cell physiology, facilitating sensing in touch and hearing as well as tissue development and wound healing. This study used an impedance sensor to monitor the effective resistance and permittivity of artificial tissues, alginate hydrogel with encapsulated fibroblasts, which were kept viable through the use of a bespoke microfluidic system. The...

Implantable, near infrared (nIR) fluorescent nanosensors are advantageous for in vivo monitoring of biological analytes since they can be rendered selective for a particular target molecule while utilizing their unique optical properties and the nIR tissue transparency window for information transfer without an internal power source or telemetry. However, basic questions remain regarding the op...

Currently, there is a significant increase in the use of natural materials for biomedical applications, mainly due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability and similar properties to the constituents of natural tissues. In this work, hydrogel films composed of alginate and Aloe vera gel were prepared and characterized for application in the treatment of several types of wounds (e.g. exuding, ...

Self-healing injectable hydrogels can be formulated as three-dimensional carriers for the treatment of neurological diseases with desirable advantages, such as avoiding the potential risks of cell loss during injection, protecting cells from the shearing force of injection. However, the demands for biocompatible self-healing injectable hydrogels to meet above requirements and to promote the dif...

BACKGROUND The three-dimensional (3D) system is one of the important factors to engineer a biocompatible and functional scaffold for the applications of cell-based therapies for cartilage repair. The 3D alginate hydrogels system has previously been shown to potentially promote chondrogenesis. The chondrocytic differentiation of co-cultured adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) and nasal chondrocyt...

Glucan particles (GPs) are 2–4 m spherical, hollow, porous shells extracted from Baker’s yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisae. The surface of the GPs is composed primarily of 1,3--glucan and the particles are efficiently phagocytosed via receptor-mediated cell uptake by macrophages, phagocytic cells expressing glucan receptors. The hollow cavity of the GPs allows for efficient absorption and encaps...

We have incorporated daunomycin, an antineoplastic agent, into a biodegradable hydrogel through a labile covalent bond. In brief, sodium alginate was chemically broken down to low molecular weight and followed by oxidation to prepare poly(aldehyde guluronate). Adipic dihydrazide was used to incorporate the drug into the polymer backbone and cross-link the polymer to form hydrogels. Daunomycin c...

We successfully synthesized a family of alginate/polyacrylamide hydrogels using various multivalent cations. These hydrogels exhibit exceptional mechanical properties. In particular, we discovered that the hydrogels cross-linked by trivalent cations are much stronger than those cross-linked by divalent cations. We demonstrate stretchability and toughness of the hydrogels by inflating a hydrogel...

Microfluidic systems for affinity-based cell isolation have emerged as a promising approach for the isolation of specific cells from complex matrices (i.e., circulating tumor cells in whole blood). However, these technologies remain limited by the lack of reliable methods for the innocuous recovery of surface captured cells. Here, we present a biofunctional sacrificial hydrogel coating for micr...