Esteban Mateo Garcia Mena

Former Bachelor student

Functionalized nanofibrous scaffolds for soft tissue engineering

 

Supervisor: Meng Li, Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini

Mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles (MBGN) are being proposed for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. With the gradual development of technology and materials, more and more evidence has confirmed the potential of MBGN in soft tissue repair. MBGN have a certain antibacterial effect. By changing its components or combining with different materials (such as functional ions, polymers, biological agents, etc.), these nanoparticles can promote wound healing more quickly and effectively [1]. The electrospinning technique is a method to produce nano fibrous scaffolds, that act as a temporary matrix for cell proliferation and extracellular matrix deposition. The method is characterized by simplicity and high efficiency, and has the advantages of leading to nanoscale structures with huge specific surface area, porosity and air permeability, which has for example the function of eliminating excess wound exudate. In this thesis, we will use element-doped MBGN and polymers to fabricate a nanofibrous scaffold by electrospinning technology, which has broad application prospects in soft tissue engineering research [2].

[1] K. Zheng and AR Boccaccini (2017), Sol-gel processing of bioactive glass nanoparticles: A review, Advances in Colloid and Interface Science 249, 363-373.

[2] Liverani, L., Reiter, T., Zheng, K., Neščáková, Z. & Boccaccini, A. R. (2022). Copper-doped cotton-like malleable electrospun bioactive glass fibers for wound healing applications. Materials Letters: X, 14, 2021, 100133.