Buoyancy-driven gradients for biomaterial fabrication and tissue engineering
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The controlled fabrication of gradient materials is becoming increasingly important as the next generation of tissue engineering seeks to produce inhomogeneous constructs with physiological complexity. Current strategies for fabricating gradient materials can require highly specialized materials or equipment and cannot be generally applied to the wide range of systems used for tissue engineering. Here, the fundamental physical principle of buoyancy is exploited as a generalized approach for generating materials bearing well‐defined compositional, mechanical, or biochemical gradients. Gradient formation is demonstrated across a range of different materials (e.g., polymers and hydrogels) and cargos (e.g., liposomes, nanoparticles, extracellular vesicles, macromolecules, and small molecules). As well as providing versatility, this buoyancy‐driven gradient approach also offers speed (<1 min) and simplicity (a single injection) using standard laboratory apparatus. Moreover, this technique is readily applied to a major target in complex tissue engineering: the osteochondral interface. A bone morphogenetic protein 2 gradient, presented across a gelatin methacryloyl hydrogel laden with human mesenchymal stem cells, is used to locally stimulate osteogenesis and mineralization in order to produce integrated osteochondral tissue constructs. The versatility and accessibility of this fabrication platform should ensure widespread applicability and provide opportunities to generate other gradient materials or interfacial tissues.
Date Issued
2019-04-25
Date Acceptance
2019-02-19
Citation
Advanced Materials, 2019, 31 (17)
ISSN
0935-9648
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Advanced Materials
Volume
31
Issue
17
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (E
Commission of the European Communities
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Wellcome Trust
Arthritis Research UK
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Medical Research Council
Arthritis Research UK
Grant Number
20069192
ERC-2013-CoG-616417
MR/R015651/1
098411/Z/12/Z
21138
MR/S00551X/1
BB/N503952/1
MR/S00551X/1
21138
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Technology
Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
Chemistry, Physical
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
Materials Science, Multidisciplinary
Physics, Applied
Physics, Condensed Matter
Chemistry
Science & Technology - Other Topics
Materials Science
Physics
biomaterials
buoyancy
gradients
osteochondral
tissue engineering
ARTICULAR-CARTILAGE
NANOPARTICLES
NANOFIBERS
SCAFFOLDS
PROTEIN
biomaterials
buoyancy
gradients
osteochondral
tissue engineering
Nanoscience & Nanotechnology
02 Physical Sciences
03 Chemical Sciences
09 Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1900291
Date Publish Online
2019-03-07