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Tissue engineering (TE) aims to restore function or replace damaged tissue through biological principles and engineering. Nanofibers are attractive substrates for tissue regeneration applications because they structurally mimic the native extracellular matrix. Composite nanofibers, which are hybrid nanofibers blended from natural and synthetic polymers, represent a major advancement in TE and regenerative medicine, since they take advantage of the physical properties of the synthetic polymer and the bioactivity of the natural polymer while minimizing the disadvantages of both. Although various nanofibrous matrices have been applied to almost all the areas of TE, in this chapter we will focus on nanofiber composites scaffolds for vascular TE.

Nanofiber composite materials play an important role in tissue engineering (TE) and regenerative medicine, mimicking the structure and properties of the extracellular matrix at nanoscale. They serve as scaffolds for cells, as carriers for various biomolecules (e.g., drugs, genes, and soluble factors), and as injectable biomaterials in TE and regenerative medicine. Clinical and preclinical studies of nanofiber composite materials have recently emerged to further develop therapeutic applications of these materials. Topics of these studies range from tissue regeneration and wound healing to biosensing and monitoring, demonstrating the great promise of nanofiber composites for a wide variety of clinical applications. This book chapter describes the characteristics and applications of nanofiber composite materials in clinical and preclinical studies. Results of relevant research are highlighted and potential research directions are discussed.

Gradient biomaterials have been developed and employed as an important tool in tissue engineering and biology research since the discovery that tissues and organs are non-homogeneous, exhibiting natural functional gradients in their structure or composition. Gradient biomaterials consist of relatively gradual continuous transitions in either compositional or mechanical properties. They have been used to study cellular responses such as cell adhesion, migration, proliferation, and differentiation, and may also be useful tools in drug discovery and development. Gradients made of hydrogels and nanofibers are widely used scaffolds in tissue engineering, which have aroused great interest owing to their tunable properties and analogy to the microenvironment of native tissues. In this chapter, we classify gradient biomaterials into two main cohorts, physical and chemical/biological gradients, and describe their features and applications, particularly as tooth or bone tissue scaffolds.

8 pages, 8 figures.-- Available online on Oct 10, 2007., A novel impedimetric immunosensor for the detection of a wide variety of compounds, based on a two coplanar non-passivated interdigitated metallic μ-electrodes and non-labeled immunoreactives, has been designed and developed. A very useful detection method is the impedance spectroscopy sweeping a wide frequency range. This is a powerful, but cumbersome tool to study the sensor performance providing trustworthy results. In this work, it is shown that the exploitation of the changes observed of the impedance at a single frequency provide very good correlation with antibody concentration and hence greatly reduces the signal acquisition and processing complexity. It has thereby a great potential for low cost, low power, fast response and simple use for the in-field or at-line applications. In this work, the application of the method to atrazine detection is described. The results show that the immunosensor signal is a function of the pesticide concentration following a competitive binding relationship, with limits of detection lower than the maximum residue level required by EC for atrazine in wine grapes and other foodstuff products., This work has been supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (Contract numbers TEC2004-0121-E and TEC2004-06854-C03-03/MIC) and by the European Community (IST-2003-508774). The MNT group is a consolidated Grup de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya since the year 2001 (expedient 00329). The AMR group is a consolidated Grup de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya and has support from the Departament d’Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (expedient 2005SGR 00207).

Understanding the protein-secretion dynamics from single, specific tissues is critical toward the advancement of disease detection and treatments. However, such secretion dynamics remain difficult to measure in vivo due to the uncontrolled contributions from other tissue populations. Here, we describe an integrated platform designed for the reliable, near real-time measurements of cytokines secreted from an in vitro single-tissue model. In our setup, we grow 3D biomimetic tissues to discretize cytokine source, and we separate them from a magnetic microbead-based biosensing system using a Transwell insert. This design integrates physiochemically controlled biological activity, high-sensitivity protein detection (LOD, Highlights • Animal models and 2D cells systems not always accurate. • 3D skeletal muscle microphysiological systems (MPS) exhibit architecture that represents native tissue's characteristics. • Reproducible and viable for at least 4 weeks under physiological conditions. • Our MPS tissues allow personalized medicine for high content screening for repeated dose efficacy testing, and toxicology.