Nanobiomaterials for Tissue Engineering

Abstract: The introduction of nanotechnology into biomaterials science has created a great deal of opportunity for enhancing scaffold properties and improving biological interactions.  But to take advantage of the potential benefits of nanobiomaterials, many challenges need to be overcome.  In our laboratory, we have capitalized on the unique properties of nanomaterials and nanocomposites to improve the physical properties of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering.  Biodegradable polymer scaffolds have been fabricated as nanofibers or infused with nanomaterials to yield many valuable properties.  Poly(ε-caprolactone) has been electrospun into nanofibers with high porosity and surface area-to-volume ratio as well as morphological similarities to natural extracellular matrix.  Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) have been proposed as the ideal foundation for the next generation of materials due to their excellent mechanical properties.  We have dispersed SWNTs and ultra short SWNTs into fumarate-based polymers to form nanocomposite scaffolds with mechanical properties far superior to the polymers alone.  Similarly, nanocomposites composed of these polymers and surface-modified alumoxane nanoparticles demonstrated significant improvements in mechanical properties and also sustained mechanical properties longer than the polymer alone during degradation.  Additionally, we have evaluated these materials for in vitro and in vivo biocompatibilityto find that nanocomposites typically elicit the same biological response as the polymers alone.  In this talk, the fabrication, unique physical properties, and biocompatibility of nanobiomaterials will be discussed especially in regard to the unique benefits of this novel class of materials for bone tissue engineering.