#tissue scaffold

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Build-a-Bone

A hard blow to the face or skull can cause damage to the bone, often difficult to repair due to the multiple cell types that contribute to the healing process and the usually irregular shape of the defect. This is where collagen scaffolds come in. Engineered to stimulate the formation of new connective tissue, the scaffolds are made from components found in bone such as calcium, phosphate ions and sugar compounds. To improve their collagen scaffold, researchers investigated how the use of different sugar compounds in their scaffold affected processes involved in bone regeneration. This included stem cell activity, the growth of immune cells and the growth of blood vessels. The latter is often overlooked when optimising scaffolds. Pictured is a coloured electron microscope image of the group’s scaffold, complete with thread-like collagen fibres.

Written by Katy Pallister

Image from work by Marley J.Dewey and Vasiliki Kolliopoulos, and colleagues

Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

Image copyright held by the original authors

Published in Materialia, August 2021

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Seeing Another Dimension

Much as construction plans might evolve from 2D sketch to 3D model to finished building, biological investigations can move from examinations of cells in a dish, to a 3D cellular model, before findings are applied in patients. Capitalising on these 3D trial environments requires efficient monitoring of the activities within, to see what effect your inputs are having, but conventional monitoring technology isn’t well suited to the 3D world. A new electroactive structure allows dynamic monitoring of electrical activity as the samples grow. The tubular scaffold (video, 0–10s) allows intestine cells to grow in controlled conditions while measuring activity. In tests, the body tissue grew well (11–17s), with key structures such as junctions between cells (green) forming and behaviour such as mucus secretion (red) clearly visible. This approach to tissue growth could add a new dynamic dimension to investigations, helping accelerate the transition from scientific theories to life-saving treatments.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Videos from work by Chrysanthi‐Maria Moysidou and colleagues

Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Videos originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Advanced Biology, January 2021

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Jaw Building

Every part of the human body is vulnerable to infection, including the jawbone. Periodontitis is one infection that can spread from the gums to permanently damage the jawbone. Researchers now test how effective biocompatible scaffolds are for repairing the jawbone using Rhesus monkeys with jawbone defects. Scaffolds were implanted into the monkeys’ jawbones, either alone, with nanoparticles containing BMP-2, a gene known to promote bone growth, or with these nanoparticles and Rhesus monkey bone marrow stem cells. Twelve weeks later, micro-CT (pictured) revealed bone repair in all monkeys who received a scaffold compared to those who received nothing (top left). Of the combinations, the greatest repair was in those with the scaffold plus BMP-2-containing nanoparticles and stem cells (bottom right). Scaffolds loaded up with factors to promote bone growth therefore show promise for treating humans with jawbone damage.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Image from work by Liyan Wang and Weikang Xu, and colleagues

Department of Stomatology, Foshan Women and Children’s Hospital, Foshan, Guangdong, China

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in Scientific Reports, December 2019

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In the Matrix

In cancer, both the makeup of the tumour itself and its environment, including neighbouring cells and the extracellular matrix, the surrounding network of proteins and fibres, are important in determining how the disease progresses. For glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a devastating form of brain cancer characterised by highly invasive glioblastoma initiating cells (GICs), the extracellular matrix is especially important for understanding how these cells spread so rapidly through the brain. Traditional cell cultures can’t provide a realistic model of how GICs behave, so researchers have recently developed a sophisticated 3D network of synthetic fibres on which GICs can be implanted, to better study how they move and spread: pictured is a neurosphere, a cluster of neural stem cells, embedding into this artificial network. This system could help scientists learn more about how GICs migrate, and eventually provide a better system in which to screen potential drugs targeting this process in GBM.

Today marks the start of International Brain Tumour Awareness Week

Written by Emmanuelle Briolat

Image from work by Ali Saleh and Emilie Marhuenda, and colleagues

Institut des Neurosciences de Montpellier, INM, U-1051, Univ. Montpellier, CHU de Montpellier, ENSCM, INSERM, Montpellier, France

Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)

Published in Scientific Reports, October 2019

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