Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
oriented morphologies of C2C12 myoblasts due to the nanoscale dimension and shape
of the produced CNCs. In addition, as compared to low orientation of CNCs sur-
faces, the degree of myoblast fusion was greatest on the surfaces of highly oriented
CNCs. However, even low orientation CNCs surfaces promoted more extensive myo-
blast fusion than fat control surfaces. Highly oriented multinuclear myotubes formed
and i brillar i bronectin deposited on the surfaces of oriented CNCs also modeled in
a highly oriented arrangement at er only 4 days in culture. h e CNCs surfaces, having
mean feature height of only 5-6 nm, present the smallest features ever demonstrated to
induce contact guidance in mammalian cells, and were even reported to induce contact
guidance in skeletal muscle myoblasts, highlighting the potential ofnanoscale materi-
als for engineering oriented tissues-like structures, such as skeletal muscle, that better
resemble native tissue [83].
Zhou
et al.
reported CNCs-reinforced poly(lactic acid) (PLA) grat ed with maleic
anhydride (MAH) i brous bionanocomposite scaf olds fabricated by electrospinning
technique. h e results showed the reduction in diameter and polydispersity of electros-
pun MAH-
g
-PLA/CNCs nanoi bers followed by improvement in thermal and mechan-
ical properties with increased CNCs content. At 5 wt% CNCs loading, MAH-g-PLA/
CNCs composite scaf olds showed superior tensile strength (more than 10 MPa) with
improved stability during
in-vitro
degradation as compared to MAH-g-PLA and PLA/
CNCs counterparts. Moreover, obtained bionanocomposite scaf olds revealed nontox-
icity towards hASCs and cell proliferation capacity (as shown in Figure 15.15), where
(a-d) show l uorescence images of hASCs cultured on PLA/CNCs and MPLA/CNCs
nanoi brous scaf olds evaluating their potential for bone tissue engineering applica-
tions [229]. Recently, ovalbumin (OVA) as biopolymer from chicken eggs has also been
studied with CNCs and fabricated the CNCs-reinforced OVA porous scaf olds showing
cell viability for bone tissue engineering applications [230].
15.9.2.2
Vascular Tissue Engineering
Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality,
producing localized reduction in the quality of arteries (stenosis), which ultimately
leads to occlusion. It reduces or even stops the blood l ow through af ected blood ves-
sels. Clinically, prosthetic heart-valves ot en fail in a very short period of time com-
pared to mechanical valves due to mineralization and inability to endure a dii cult
environment, including cyclic bending stresses and high pressure transients across the
valve, for long periods of time [231]. h ese problems have attracted a great amount of
attention towards the development of biobased scaf olds with better mechanical
performances.
h e way in which Cherian
et al.
fabricated the nanobiocomposites was by stack-
ing the cellulose nanoi ber mats between polyurethane i lms and pressing by compres-
sion molding. With the addition of 5 wt% cellulose nanob ers into polyurethane the
strength and stif ness increased by nearly 300% and 2600%, respectively. h e developed
composites were utilized to fabricate various versatile medical implants. Cellulose poly-
urethanes-based materials are sui ciently durable and blood compatible for potential
use in a prosthetic heart valves and ef ectively showed less mineralization than glutar-
aldehyde-i xed bovine pericardial tissue [231].
