antimicrobial-characterization-advanced-materials-for-bioengineering

Antimicrobial Characterization of Advanced Materials for Bioengineering Applications

The development of new advanced materials with enhanced properties is becoming more and more important in a wide range of bioengineering applications. ...

Universidad Católica de Valencia San Vicente Mártir

A series of calcium alginate composite hydrogels with several calcium chloride contents ranging from 3 to 18 wt.% with and without 0.1 wt.% of graphene oxide (GO) was prepared in order to study the effect of crosslinking and nanofilling on water diffusion and compression performance. Thus, for high crosslinker contents, these composite hydrogels exhibited ultrafast diffusion of liquid water and excellent compression properties as compared with control (0 wt.% GO and the same crosslinking). These remarkable results are produced due to calcium cations are able to crosslink alginate and also graphene oxide nanosheets to form large crosslinked GO networks inside the calcium alginate hydrogels. Besides, these crosslinked GO/calcium alginate networks present nanochannels, as confirmed by electron microscopy, able to improve significantly water diffusion. Thus, these composite materials are very promising for many industrial applications demanding low-cost hydrogels with improved mechanical and water diffusion properties.

Enhancement of water diffusion and compression performance of crosslinked alginate films with a minuscule amount of graphene oxide.

Micrometer length tubes of graphene oxide (GO) with irregular form were synthesised following facile and green metal complexation reactions. These materials were obtained by crosslinking of GO with calcium, zinc or strontium chlorides at three different temperatures (24, 34 and 55°C) using distilled water as solvent for the compounds and following a remarkably simple and low-cost synthetic method, which employs no hazardous substances and is conducted without consumption of thermal or sonic energy. These irregular continuous GO networks showed a very particular interconnected structure by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy-Disperse X-Ray Spectroscopy for elemental analysis and High-resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy with Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope Dark Field Imaging, and were analysed by Raman Spectroscopy. To demonstrate the potential use of these 3D GO networks as reinforcement materials for biomedical applications, two composites of calcium alginate with irregular tubes of GO and with single GO nanosheets were prepared with the same amount of GO and divalent atoms and analysed. Thus, the dynamic-mechanical modulus of the composites synthesised with the 3D crosslinked GO networks showed a very significant mechanical improvement due to marked microstructural changes confirmed by confocal microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.

Synthesis of irregular graphene oxide tubes using green chemistry and their potential use as reinforcement materials for biomedical applications.

Current clinical strategies for bladder reconstruction or substitution are associated to serious problems. Therefore, new alternative approaches are becoming more and more necessary. The purpose of this work is to review the state of the art of the current bioengineering advances and obstacles reported in bladder regeneration. Tissue bladder engineering requires an ideal engineered bladder scaffold composed of a biocompatible material suitable to sustain the mechanical forces necessary for bladder filling and emptying. In addition, an engineered bladder needs to reconstruct a compliant muscular wall and a highly specialized urothelium, well-orchestrated under control of autonomic and sensory innervations. Bioreactors play a very important role allowing cell growth and specialization into a tissue-engineered vascular construct within a physiological environment. Bioprinting technology is rapidly progressing, achieving the generation of custom-made structural supports using an increasing number of different polymers as ink with a high capacity of reproducibility. Although many promising results have been achieved, few of them have been tested with clinical success. This lack of satisfactory applications is a good reason to discourage researchers in this field and explains, somehow, the limited high-impact scientific production in this area during the last decade, emphasizing that still much more progress is required before bioengineered bladders become a commonplace in the clinical setting.

Article	Year
Enhancement of water diffusion and compression performance of crosslinked alginate films with a minuscule amount of graphene oxide. Scientific reports\| PubMed ID: 28916741	2017
Synthesis of irregular graphene oxide tubes using green chemistry and their potential use as reinforcement materials for biomedical applications. PloS one\| PubMed ID: 28934354	2017
Bioengineering Approaches for Bladder Regeneration. International journal of molecular sciences\| PubMed ID: 29914213	2018

Angel Serrano-Aroca

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