| dc.description.abstract |
Promising strategies for treating diseases and conditions like cancer , tissue
necrosis from injury , congenital abnormalities , etc . , involve replacing pathologic tissue
with healthy tissue . Strategies devoted to the development of tissue to restore , maintain ,
or improve function is called tissue engineering . Engineering tissue requires three
components , cells that can proliferate to form tissue , a microenvironment that nourishes
the cells , and a tissue scaffold that provides mechanical stability , controls tissue
architecture , and aids in mimicking the cell’s natural extracellular matrix (ECM ) .
Currently , there is much focus on designing scaffolds that recapitulate the topology of
cells’ ECM , in vivo , which undoubtedly wields structures with nanoscale dimensions .
Although it is widely thought that sub -microscale features in the ECM have the greatest vii
impact on cell behavior relative to larger structures , interactions between cells and
nanostructures surfaces is not well understood .
There have been few comprehensive studies elucidating the effects of both feature
dimension and geometry on the initial formation and growth of the axons of individual
neurons . Reconnecting the axons of neurons in damaged nerves is vital in restoring
function . Understanding how neurons react with nanopatterned surfaces will advance
development of optimal biomaterials used for reconnecting neural networks Here , we
investigated the effects of micro - and nanostructures of various sizes and shape on
neurons at the single cell level .
Compulsory to studying interactions between cells and sub -cellular structures is
having nanofabrication technologies that enable biomaterials to be patterned at the
nanoscale . We also present a novel nanofabrication process , coined Flash Imprint
Lithography using a Mask Aligner (FILM ) , used to pattern nanofeatures in UV -curable
biomaterials for tissue engineering applications . Using FILM , we were able to pattern 50
nm lines in polyethylene glycol (PEG ) . We later used FILM to pattern nanowells in PEG
to study the effect of the nanowells on the behavior preadipocytes (PAs ) .
Results of our cell experiments with neurons and PAs suggested that
incorporating micro - and nanoscale topography on biomaterial surfaces may enhance
biomaterials’ ability to constrain cell development . Moreover , we found the FILM
process to be a useful fabrication tool for tissue engineering applications . |
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