There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Hydrogels for tissue engineering: scaffold design variables and applications.

Biodegradable nanoparticles for drug and gene delivery to cells and tissue

Polylactic acid is proving to be a viable alternative to petrochemical-based plastics for many applications It is produced from renewable resources and is biodegradable, decomposing to give H2O, CO2, and humus, the black material in soil In addition, it has unique physical properties that make it useful in diverse applications including paper coating, fibers, films, and packaging (see Figure)

Polylactic Acid Technology

RGD modified polymers: biomaterials for stimulated cell adhesion and beyond

Biomaterial developments for bone tissue engineering

Stem cells and adipose tissue engineering.

The invention provides a biocompatible composite for use in a living subject for purposes of repairing damaged tissues and reconstructing a new tissue. The composite includes a biodegradable or absorbable three-dimensional support construct, a liquid or viscous fluid forming a gel matrix or viscous fluid when delivered to an area of interest in a living subject. The biodegradable construct provides an ideal surface for cell or cell extract attachment, while the gel matrix or viscous fluid acts as both a carrier material and a separator for maintaining the space between the constructs as well as the structural integrity of the developing issue.

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Tissue engineering composite

Soft tissue reconstruction using tissue-engineered constructs requires the development of materials that are biocompatible and support cell adhesion and growth. The objective of this study was to e...

/pdf/a-hydrogel-material-for-plastic-and-reconstructive-10og9oznn6.pdf

A hydrogel material for plastic and reconstructive applications injected into the subcutaneous space of a sheep.

Development of tissue-engineered devices may be enhanced by combining cells with porous absorbable polymeric scaffolds before implantation. The cells are seeded throughout the scaffolds and allowed to proliferate in vitro for a predetermined amount of time. The distribution of cells throughout the porous material is one critical component determining success or failure of the tissue-engineered device. This can influence both the successful integration of the device with the host tissue as well as the development of a vascularized network throughout the entire scaffold volume. This research sought to compare different seeding and proliferation methods to select an ideal method for a polyglycolide/aortic endothelial cell system. Two seeding environments, static and dynamic, and three proliferation environments, static, dynamic, and bioreactor, were analyzed, for a total of six possible methods. The six seeding and proliferation combinations were analyzed following a 1-week total culture time. It was determined that for this specific system, dynamic seeding followed by a dynamic proliferation phase is the least promising method and dynamic seeding followed by a bioreactor proliferation phase is the most promising.

Karen J. L. Burg

Papers

Biomaterial developments for bone tissue engineering

Stem cells and adipose tissue engineering.

Tissue engineering composite

A hydrogel material for plastic and reconstructive applications injected into the subcutaneous space of a sheep.

Comparative study of seeding methods for three-dimensional polymeric scaffolds.